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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Camps and Trails in China
+by Roy Chapman Andrews and Yvette Borup Andrews
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Camps and Trails in China
+       A Narrative of Exploration, Adventure, and Sport in Little-Known China
+
+Author: Roy Chapman Andrews and Yvette Borup Andrews
+
+Release Date: May 7, 2004 [EBook #12296]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CAMPS AND TRAILS IN CHINA ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Paul Hollander, Christopher Lund and PG Distributed
+Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+
+[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
+
+BY
+
+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 OF 'WHALE
+HUNTING WITH GUN AND CAMERA'
+
+AND
+
+YVETTE BORUP ANDREWS
+
+PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE ASIATIC ZOÖLOGICAL EXPEDITION
+
+1918
+
+
+
+
+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-chang 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,
+Yenping, 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
+
+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
+
+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
+
+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
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+A BAT CAVE IN THE BIG RAVINE
+
+The Temple in the Big Ravine--Hunting serow--A bat apartment house
+
+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
+
+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
+
+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
+
+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
+
+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
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+ON THE ROAD TO TA-LI FU
+
+Our 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
+
+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
+
+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
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+CAMPING IN THE CLOUDS
+
+Moso hunters--Primitive guns--Cross-bows and poisoned arrows--Dogs--A
+porcupine--New mammals--We find a new camp on the mountain
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE FIRST GORAL
+
+Killed near camp--A sacrifice to the God of the Hunt--Small mammals--The
+second goral
+
+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
+
+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
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+GORALS AND SEROWS
+
+Relationship--Appearance of the serow--Habits--Gorals
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+THE "WHITE WATER"
+
+Y.B.A.
+
+Our new camp--A serow--We go to Li-chiang--A burial ceremony--Ancestor
+worship
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+ACROSS THE YANGTZE GORGE
+
+Traveling to the river--Inaccuracy of the Chinese--First view of the
+gorge--The Taku ferry--Caves
+
+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
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+TRAVELING TOWARD TIBET
+
+A hard climb--Our highest camp--A Lolo village--Thanksgiving with the Lolos
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+STALKING TIBETANS WITH A CAMERA
+
+Y.B.A.
+
+Caravans--Tibetans--Dress--Appearance--Photographing frightened
+natives--Reason for suspicion
+
+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
+
+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
+
+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
+
+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
+
+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
+
+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
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+CAMPING ON THE NAM-TING RIVER
+
+A beautiful camp--The "Dying Rabbit"--Sambur hunting--Jungle
+fowl--Civets--Pole cats and other animals
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+MONKEY HUNTING
+
+Strange calls in the jungle--Our first gibbons--Relationship and
+habits--Langurs and baboons--A night in the jungle
+
+CHAPTER XXXI
+
+THE SHANS OF THE BURMA BORDER
+
+An unfriendly chief--Honest natives--Houses at Nam-ka--Tattooing--Shan
+tribe--Dress
+
+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
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII
+
+HUNTING PEACOCKS ON THE SALWEEN RIVER
+
+The valley at Changlung--The ferry--Peacocks--The stalker stalked--Habits
+of peafowls
+
+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"
+
+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
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI
+
+A BIG GAME PARADISE
+
+Gorals at Hui-yao--Deer--Splendid hunts
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII
+
+SEROW AND SAMBUR
+
+Monkeys at Hui-yao--Muntjacs--A new serow--We move camp to Wa-tien--A fine
+sambur
+
+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 civilization
+again--Farewell to the Orient
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+Our camp on the Snow Mountain at an altitude of 12,000 feet.
+
+Yvette Borup Andrews with a pet Yün-nan squirrel
+Edmund Heller
+Roy Chapman Andrews and a goral
+
+A Chinese hunter and a muntjac
+Brigands killed in the Yen-ping Rebellion
+
+The Ling-suik monastery
+A priest of Ling-suik
+
+A Chinese mother with her children
+Chinese women of the coolie class with bound feet
+
+Cormorant fishers on the lake at Yün-nan Fu
+Our camp at Chou Chou on the way to Ta-li Fu
+
+The Pagodas at Ta-li Fu
+The dead of China
+
+The residence of Rev. William J. Hanna at Ta-li-Fu
+The gate and main street of Ta-li Fu
+
+One of the pagodas at Ta-li Fu
+
+A Moso herder
+A Moso woman
+
+The Snow Mountain
+
+A cheek gun used by one of our hunters
+The first goral killed on the Snow Mountain
+
+Hotenfa, one of our Moso hunters, bringing in a goral
+Another Moso hunter with a porcupine
+
+A typical goral cliff on the Snow Mountain
+
+A serow killed on the Snow Mountain
+The head of a serow
+
+The "white water"
+
+A Liso hunter carrying a flying squirrel
+The chief of our Lolo hunters
+
+A Lolo village
+Lolos seeing their photographs for the first time
+
+Travelers in the Mekong valley
+Two Tibetans
+
+The gorge of the Yangtze River
+
+A quiet curve of the Mekong River
+
+The temple in which we camped at Ta-li Fu
+A crested muntjac
+
+The south gate at Yung-chang
+A Chinese bride returning to her mother's home at New Year's
+
+A Chinese patriarch
+Young China
+
+A Shan village
+A Shan woman spinning
+
+A Kachin woman in the market at Meng-ting
+One of our Shan hunters with two yellow gibbons
+
+Our camp on the Nam-ting River
+The Shan village at Nam-ka
+
+The head of a gibbon killed on the Nam-ting River
+A civet
+
+A Shan girl
+A Shan boy
+
+A suspension bridge
+Mrs. Andrews feeding one of our bear cubs
+
+A sambur killed at Wa-tien
+The head of a muntjac
+
+A mountain chair
+The waterfall at Teng-Yueh
+
+MAP I. The red line indicates the travels of the Expedition
+
+MAP II. Route of the Expedition in Yün-nan
+
+
+
+
+
+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 palaeontological,
+archaeological, 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
+reconnoissance, 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 Galápagos 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.
+
+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
+March 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 monarchial 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 1913 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, 1915, 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 23, 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 13, 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 1913,
+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 in 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 corners. 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. Livingston, 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 hour 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.
+
+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 argyrochcaetes_) 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 on 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 will 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
+turned 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 burn 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 hill-top 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 superhuman 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.
+
+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 at 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.
+
+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. Gary, 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 lotos 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 3 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. Chemein Dupontés, 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. Dupontés 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. Dupontés 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_ [Footnote: A _li_ in this province equals
+one-third of an English mile.] 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.'"
+
+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 businesslike 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 midday, 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
+erythraeus_ sub sp.) 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 oilcloth,
+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.
+
+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 shoo 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 23, 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 on 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 (_Aelurus
+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.
+
+Skins of the huge red-brown flying squirrel, _Petaruista 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 temmicki_) 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 course 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.
+
+    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.
+
+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
+reconnoissance 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 horseback 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.
+
+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.
+
+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 campfire 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.
+
+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 .303 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 dumfounded 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.
+
+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 nursing 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." [Footnote: "Yün-nan,
+the Link between India and the Yangtze," by Major H.R. Davies, 1909, p.
+389.] 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.
+
+
+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 Tong-king--one nation
+    speaking one language in the flat country and a Tower of Babel in the
+    hills (_loc. cit._, pp. 332-333).
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+
+GORALS AND SEROWS
+
+Gorals and serows belong to the subfamily _Rupicaprinae_ which is an early
+mountain-living offshoot of the _Bovidae_; 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.
+
+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
+argyrochaetes_ 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
+_Naemorhedus 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 Shwelie 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
+mountainside, 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. [Footnote: "Mountain Goat Hunting with the Camera," by Henry
+    Fairfield Osborn. Reprinted from the tenth _Annual Report of the New
+    York Zoölogical Society_, 1906, pp. 13-14.]
+
+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 amherstiae_) 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 caldrons 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. [Footnote: "Doctoring China," by Tyler Dennet, _Asia_,
+    February, 1918, p. 114.]
+
+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
+    height 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.
+
+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 23, 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.
+
+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 when 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 could 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_
+[Footnote: _Tsamba_ is parched oats or barley, ground finely.] 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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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 Tsang 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 reached 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.
+
+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 15°+ 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 caldrons 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 Pei-ping, 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.
+
+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 $3.50 (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 work. 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 shot is
+fired kill me first."
+
+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 13 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. [Footnote: "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 _must 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. [Footnote: "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 Yuang-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 Nestardín, 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. [Footnote: "The
+    Travels of Marco Polo the Venetian." Everyman's Library. J.M. Dent &
+    Sons, Ltd., London; pp. 253-256.]
+
+
+
+
+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.
+
+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 2,300 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 5, 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 erythraeus_ 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.
+
+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 buffalos 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.
+
+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-clean, 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 _li_
+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 .303 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.
+
+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 _Viverridae_ 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 Mustelidae 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.
+
+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.
+
+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! 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 veranda
+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 cried 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
+stern 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 Phasianidae. 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 5,000 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
+bloodcurdling 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.
+
+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 Reuter'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, Temmick'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-zu 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 napthalene, 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
+tumbledown 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.
+
+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 sub-species 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 250-300 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.
+
+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--Tali-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 Yeng-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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+Abertsen, Mr., Chinese Customs, employee of;
+    discovered hunting ground near Hui-yao;
+    killed two gorals
+Africa
+Akeley, Carl E.
+Alaska
+Allen, Dr. J.A.
+American flags
+American Legation, Peking
+American Museum Journal
+American Museum of Natural History;
+    trustees of, specimens being prepared at
+Americans
+Ammunition, loss of
+Amoy
+_Anas boscas_ (Mallard ducks)
+Anglo-Chinese College
+Animal life, lack of
+Annamits
+Antlers
+Ape, gray (_Pygathrix_)
+_Apodemus_ (white-footed mouse)
+Asia
+_Asia_ Magazine, quoted from
+Asiatic Zoölogical Expedition;
+    members of
+Assam
+Assistants
+A-tun-zu
+
+Babies, killing and selling of
+Baboon, brown (_Macacus_)
+Baboon, Indian (_Macacus rhesus_)
+Bamboo chickens
+Bandits, attack of
+Bankhardt, Mr.
+Bat apartment house
+Bat cave, description of;
+    experience of girl in
+Bats, method of killing
+Batrachians
+Bear cubs (_Ursus tibetanus_), purchased at Teng-yueg
+Bedding
+Berger, Anna Katherine, acknowledgment to
+Bering Strait
+Bernheimer, Mr. and Mrs. Charles L.
+Betel nut
+Bhamo;
+    railroad from;
+    road to;
+    description of
+Big Ravine, description of;
+    temples near
+Birds, game
+_Blarina_
+Boat, Chinese, eye on
+Bode, Mr.
+Bohea Hills
+Bound feet
+Bowdoin, George
+Bradley, Dr.;
+    established leper hospital at Paik-hoi
+Brahmin priests
+Brahminy ducks;
+    habits of
+Bridge, suspension, description of
+Bridges, rope
+Brigand, seal of a pardoned
+Brigandage
+Brigands; beheading of;
+    infest Yün-nan;
+    description of
+British American Tobacco Co., Hongkong
+British East Africa
+Brooke, Englishman, killed by Lolos
+Buffaloes;
+    water
+Bui-tao
+Bureau of Foreign Affairs, Director of
+Burial, expenses of
+Burma;
+    border of;
+    girls of;
+    mammals caught near;
+    frontier of;
+    boundary of
+Burmans
+
+Calcutta
+Caldwell, Rev. Harry R.;
+    letter from;
+    house of;
+    stationed at Futsing;
+    tiger hunting, method of;
+    obtains serows at Yen-ping;
+    purchases serow skins in Fukien
+California
+_Callosciurus erythraeus_
+Camera equipment
+Canadian Pacific R.R. Co., Hongkong, General Passenger Agent of
+Cantonese, chiefly of Shan stock
+_Capricornulus crispus_
+_Capricornis sumatrensis_
+_Capricornis sumatrensis argyrochaetes_
+_Capricornis sumatrensis milne-edwardsi_
+Caravan, robbing of;
+    buying of;
+    renting of
+Caravan ponies
+Caravans, distance traveled by
+Cary, F.W., Commissioner of Customs
+_Casarca casarca_ (ruddy sheldrake)
+Caverns
+Central Asia
+Central Asian plateau
+_Cervus macneilli_
+Chair-coolies
+Chairs, description of
+Chang, Dr.
+Chang-hu-fan;
+    night at
+Changlung;
+    ferry at
+Chien-chuan
+Chi-li
+China;
+    aboriginal inhabitants of;
+    press;
+    inland mission
+Chinaman, Cantonese
+Chinese, Republic;
+    army of;
+    face saving;
+    Foreign Office;
+    screaming, habit of;
+    lack of sympathy of;
+    not affected by sun;
+    love of companionship;
+    bride of;
+    wedding of;
+    dress of;
+    Commissioner of Foreign Affairs, meeting with;
+    education of;
+    villages, description of;
+    etiquette of;
+    New Year;
+    collecting debts of
+Chipmunk (_Tamiops macclellandi_)
+Chi-yuen-kang
+Chou Chou
+Christians, native, persecution of
+Christianity, lesson in
+Christmas;
+    celebration of
+Chu-hsuing Fu
+Chung-tien
+Civet (_Viverra_)
+Clive, Captain
+Clothing
+Colgate, Mr. and Mrs. Sidney M.
+Collecting case
+Color plates
+Confucius, rules of
+Cook, difficulty in obtaining;
+    description of
+Coolies
+Cormorants
+Corn
+Cows, used as burden-bearers by Chinese
+Cranes;
+    habits of
+Crossbows
+Cui-kau;
+    description of
+
+Da-Da
+Daing-nei
+_Dâk_ (mail) bungalows
+Da-Ming
+Darjeeling
+Davies, Major H.R.;
+    quoted
+Dead, burying of
+Deer
+Deer, barking
+Denby, Hon. Charles
+Dennet, Tyler, quoted
+D'Ollone, Major, member French Expedition
+D'Orleans, Prince Henri
+Dog, red, death of
+Dogs, description of;
+    for food
+Doumer, M., Governor-General of French Indo-China
+Duai Uong
+Ducks brahminy;
+    shooting of
+Dupontès, Georges Chemin, assistance of, to expedition
+
+Eastes, Mr., Consul
+Education, foreign
+_Elaphodus_
+Elephants
+Elk
+Ellsworth, Lincoln
+Embry, Rev. and Mrs., China Inland Mission, members of
+Empress Dowager;
+    issued edict prohibiting opium growing
+Equipment, purchase of
+Erh Hai or Ta-li Fu Lake
+Etiquette
+Europe
+European war
+Evans, H.G.;
+    assistance of
+Expedition, announcement of;
+    applicants for positions on;
+    results of
+Expeditions, preliminary
+Eye on Chinese boat
+
+Farmer, Mr.
+Fauna, mammalian
+_Felis temmicki_
+_Felis uncia_
+Ferry
+Fletcher, H.G.
+Flying squirrel
+Foochow;
+    foreign residents of;
+    streets of;
+    mail from;
+    schools for native girls at;
+    woman's college at
+Food box
+Foot binding, origin of;
+    method of;
+    Natural Foot Society of;
+    agitation against
+Forbidden City
+Ford, James B.
+Foreign Office
+Forest conservation, lack of
+Formosa
+Forrest, Mr.
+Fossil animals;
+    beds
+Francolins
+French Consul
+Frick, Childs
+Frick, Henry C.
+Fukien Province, China;
+    deforestation of;
+    mammals of;
+    climate and temperature of;
+    collecting in summer at;
+    birds of;
+    herpetology of;
+    trapping for small mammals at;
+    zoölogical study of;
+    language of;
+    travel in;
+    servants in;
+    serows hunted in;
+    missionary work in
+Funeral customs
+Futsing;
+    blue tiger hunting at
+
+Galápagos Islands
+_Gallus gallus_
+_Gallus lafayetti_
+_Gallus sonnerati_
+_Gallus varius_
+Gamblers
+Geese
+Gen-kang
+Gibbon (_Hylobates_);
+    description of;
+    hunting of
+Goffe, Consul-General at Yün-nan Fu
+Goitre, prevalence of
+Gorals;
+    first hunt for;
+    ceremonies at death of;
+    collecting for groups;
+    color of;
+    invisibility of;
+    description of;
+    horns of;
+    distribution of;
+    hunting of;
+    fighting of;
+    habits of;
+    feet of;
+    hunting of, at Hui-yao
+Great Invisible
+Grierson, Ralph C.
+_Grus communis_
+_Grus nigricollis_
+
+Habala;
+    hunting at
+Hainan, description of;
+    fauna of
+Haiphong;
+    arrival at
+Hanna, Rev. William J.
+Hanoi, description of
+_Harper's Magazine_
+Hartford, Mabel
+Heller, Edmund
+Himalaya Mountains
+Hoi-hau
+Homes
+Ho-mu-shu;
+    monkeys found near
+Hongkong, purchase of supplies at
+Hoolock (_Hylobates hoolock_)
+Hornbill
+Horses, size of
+Hospital attendants
+Hotenfa
+Hsia-kuan, description of
+Hui-yao;
+    reptiles and lizards found at
+Hunan
+Hung-Hsien
+Hunters
+Hutchins, Commander Thomas
+Hwa Shan (Flower Mountain), massacre at
+_Hylobates_
+_Hylomys_
+_Hystrix_
+
+India
+Inns
+Irawadi River
+
+Japan
+Japanese newspaper reporters
+Joline, Mrs. Adrian Hoffman
+Jungle fowl;
+    habits of
+
+Kachins;
+    women, appearance of
+Katha
+Kellogg, C.R.
+Kok, Rev. and Mrs. A.;
+    Pentecostal missionary;
+    assistance of
+Koko-nor
+Koo, Wellington
+Korea;
+    pheasants found in
+Kraemer, M.
+Kucheng
+Kwang-si
+Kwei-chau Province
+
+Lane & Crawford Company of Hongkong
+Lang, Herbert, photograph of serow loaned by
+Languages and dialects, number of;
+    reason for
+Langur
+Langurs (_Pygathrix_)
+Lao-kay, first hotel on railroad
+Lapwings
+Las
+Lashio
+Legge, Prof. J., quoted
+Leopards
+Leper hospital
+_Li_, length of
+Li-chang;
+    animal life on route to;
+    arrival at;
+    camp in;
+    collecting in;
+    mammals of;
+    important fur market at;
+    inhabitants of;
+    return to
+Li-Hung Chang
+Ling-suik, monastery of;
+    description of;
+    priests at;
+    collecting at
+Lisos
+Livingstone, H.W.
+Loads, weight of
+Lolos;
+    depredations of;
+    independence of;
+    dress of;
+    capes worn by
+London Zoölogical Society's Garden
+Long Ravine, blue tiger seen at
+Lucas, Dr. F.A., acknowledgment to
+Lui, Mr., salt commissioner at Tsia-kuan
+Lung-ling
+Lung-tao
+Lutzus
+
+McMurray, J.V.A.
+_Macacus rhesus_
+_Mafus_, description of
+Mail
+Malaria
+Malay Peninsula
+Ma-li-ling
+Ma-li-pa;
+    poppy fields at
+Mallard ducks
+Mammals, small, importance of;
+    preparing of
+Man, primitive, migrations of
+Man-eater, killing of
+Mandalay
+Mandarins, relations with
+Ma-po-lo, low valley at;
+    game at;
+    fog in
+Marco Polo
+Massacre in Hwa Shan (Flower Mountain)
+Mazzetti-Haendel, Baron
+Meadow vole (_Microtus_)
+Mekong
+Mekong river, description of
+Mekong-Salween divide
+Mekong valley;
+    vegetables in;
+    zoölogy of
+Meng-ting;
+    description of;
+    mandarin of;
+    Buddhist monastery at;
+    market at;
+    Cantonese visit and buy opium at;
+    fog at;
+    valley at;
+    birds at
+Mergansers
+Methodist mission
+Mexico
+Miao village
+Mice
+_Micromys_
+_Microtus_, meadow vole
+Min River;
+    life on
+Mission hospital;
+    China Inland
+Missionaries;
+    servants of;
+    natives trading with;
+    civilizing influence of
+Mohammedan Chinese, married to a Shan
+Mohammedan hunter
+Mohammedan war
+Mole
+Molloy, Agnes F., acknowledgment to
+Money, carrying of;
+    transmitting of
+Monkey
+Monkey temple
+Moose
+Morgan, Cordelia
+Mosos;
+    description of;
+    capes worn by
+Motion pictures;
+    developing of
+Mountain goat
+"Mountain Goat Hunting with Camera," quoted from
+Mouse (_Micromys_)
+Moving picture film
+Mu-cheng
+Muntjac, description of
+Museum authorities
+Mustelidae
+Myitkyina district
+
+_Naemorhedus griseus_
+Nam-ka, Shans at;
+    description of;
+    camp at
+Nam-ting River, ferry at;
+    camping at;
+    hunters at;
+    camp on;
+    polecat trapped at;
+    monkeys, hunting at;
+    hornbill, seen at;
+    monkeys found at;
+    Shans seen at;
+    caravan crossed
+_Namur_, S.S.
+Natives;
+    inaccuracy of
+New York, return to
+Ngu-cheng
+Non-Chinese tribes
+North America
+Northern soldiers
+Northern troops
+
+Opium;
+    growing of;
+    inspection of;
+    scandal;
+    smuggling of;
+    smoking of
+Osborn, Henry Fairfield, quoted
+
+Pack saddle, description of
+Pack, weight of
+Page, Howard
+Paget color plates
+Pagoda Anchorage
+Paik-hoi;
+    leper hospital at
+Palaungs
+Palmer, Mr.
+Pandas, coats of
+Pangolin, scales of
+Parrots
+Partridges, bamboo
+Passports
+_Pavo cristatus_
+_Pavo munticus_
+Peacock, black-shouldered
+Peacock, hunting of;
+    habits of;
+    eggs of;
+    domestication of
+Peacock, Indian
+Peafowl, killed on Salween River;
+    flesh of
+Peking
+_Petaruista yunnanensis_
+Phasiandae
+Pheasants, shooting of;
+    Lady Amherst's;
+    silver;
+    horned
+Phete;
+    country about;
+    natives of
+Photographic work
+Photographs in natural colors
+Photography, cinematograph
+Pigeons
+Pigs, killing of;
+    wild;
+    treatment of
+Pin-tail
+Pleistocene
+Pocock, Mr.
+Polecat
+Polo, Marco;
+    quoted
+Poppy blossoms
+Poppy fields
+Porcupine, description of
+Portable dark room
+Prjevalsky, Lieutenant-Colonel
+P'u-erh
+_Pygathrix_ (monkeys)
+
+Railroad, Hanoi to Yün-nan;
+    description of
+Rain, last of the season
+Rainey, Paul J.
+Rangoon
+_Ratufa gigantea_
+Rebellion of 1913
+Reinsch, Hon. Paul
+Republic
+Rhododendrons
+Rice
+Rice fields
+Rifle, Mannlicher;
+    Savage;
+    Winchester
+Riot in Shanghai
+Roads, descriptions of
+Rocky Mountain sheep
+Roosevelt, Colonel Theodore
+_Rupicapra_
+Rupicaprine antelopes, horns of
+
+Salt, preparation of
+Salween River;
+    heat of
+Sambur;
+    hunting of;
+    blood of
+Sammons, Mr., American Consul-General
+Sampans, first night in
+San Francisco
+Scandinavian steamer
+Schools for native girls
+Sclater, Mr.
+Screaming, Chinese habit of
+Sedan chairs
+Serows;
+    hunt for;
+    habits of;
+    hunting for;
+    description of;
+    color variation of;
+    Japanese;
+    difference from gorals;
+    horns of;
+    relationship of;
+    appearance of;
+    killed on Snow Mountain;
+    obtained by Mr. Caldwell at Yen-ping;
+    distribution of;
+    habits of;
+    weight of;
+    hunting of at Hui-yao
+Servants, wages of
+Shanghai;
+    riot in
+Shans;
+    description of village of;
+    houses of;
+    heavily tattooed;
+    tribes of;
+    description of
+Sheldrakes
+Sherwood, George H., assistance rendered to Expedition by
+Shia-chai
+Shie-tien;
+    bird life at;
+    natives, curiosity of
+Shih-ku ferry
+Shoverling, Daly & Gales, ammunition, guns, tents, furnished by
+Shrew
+Shwelie River
+Singapore
+Slave raiding
+Smith, Arthur H., quoted
+Snow Mountain, camp at;
+    traveling to;
+    description of hunters at;
+    mammalogy of;
+    camp on slopes of;
+    mammals collected at;
+    serows killed on
+Soldiers, guard of;
+    guns of;
+    expense of;
+    use of;
+    treatment by natives of;
+    fight with;
+    extortions of
+South America
+Specimens, packing of
+Squirrel, flying (_Petaurista yunnanensis_);
+    _Ratufa gigantea_;
+    red-bellied (_Callosciurus erythraeus_)
+S'suchuan Province
+S'su-mao
+Standard Oil Co.;
+    launch of
+Su Ek
+Sun-birds
+_Sung-kiang_, S.S.
+
+Tablets, ancestral, description of
+Tai-ping-pu
+Taku
+Taku ferry
+Ta-li Fu;
+    soldiers guard to;
+    road to;
+    graves at;
+    lake at;
+    mandarin at;
+    pagodas at
+Ta-li Fu Lake, description of
+_Tamiops macclellandi_
+Taoist temple
+_Tao-tai_
+Tartars
+Temple, camp in
+Teng-yueh;
+    return to
+Tents
+_Tenyo Maru_
+Thompson, Dr.
+Tibet;
+    monopoly of gold in
+Tibetan plateaus
+Tibetans, description of;
+    photographing of;
+    dislike for strangers of;
+    influence of Chinese on
+Tiger;
+    man-eating;
+    lairs of;
+    stalking a goat;
+    habits of;
+    daring of;
+    strength of;
+    excitement of hunting;
+    weight of;
+    blood of;
+    skins in temples of;
+    food of;
+    hunting in lair of;
+    flesh and bones of;
+    marking trees by;
+    skins of
+Tiger, blue;
+    description of;
+    hunting of;
+    trying to trap
+Tonking
+Tragopan, Temmick's
+Transportation, difficulties of
+Trapping, methods of
+Traps, steel;
+    method of setting
+Trees, marking of, by tiger
+Tribes, non-Chinese, description of
+Trimble, Dr.;
+    house of
+Trowbridge, Captain Harry
+Tsai-ao, General
+_Tsamba_
+Tsang mountains
+Tsinan-fu
+_Tupaia belangeri chinensis_
+
+United States
+Universal Camera
+_Ursus tibetanus_
+
+Vegetarians
+_Viverra_
+Viverridae
+Vochang
+Vole
+Von Hintze, Admiral
+
+Wapiti
+War, Mohammedan
+Was
+Waterhole
+Wa-tien
+Wei-hsi
+White Water;
+    camp at;
+    weather at
+Wild boar
+Wilden, Henry M., French Consul
+Wolves
+Woman's college at Foochow
+Women, position of, in China
+Worship, ancestor
+Wu-Hung-tao, interpreter
+
+_Yamen_
+Yangtze River;
+    road to;
+    crossing of;
+    barrier to mammals
+Yangtze gorge, description of
+Yen-ping;
+    climate of;
+    description of;
+    residence of Mr. Caldwell at;
+    Methodist Mission at;
+    trapping at;
+    rebellion in;
+    refugees from;
+    fighting in;
+    attacked by rebels in;
+    wounded in;
+    schools for native girls at;
+    Chinese wedding at;
+    missionary buildings of
+Yokohama
+Yuan
+Yuan-Shi-kai;
+    death of
+Yuchi;
+    brigands at
+
+Yung-chang, Chinese New Year at;
+    road to;
+    water buffaloes at;
+    battle at
+Yung-chang-Teng-yueh road
+Yün-nan;
+    size of;
+    topography of;
+    boundaries of;
+    fauna of;
+    natives of;
+    language of;
+    infested with brigands;
+    zoölogical study of;
+    meaning of;
+    summer climate of
+Yün-nan Fu;
+    foreign residents of;
+    foreign office at;
+    Dr. Thompson's hospital at
+
+Zoölogical Garden, Berlin
+Zoölogical Park, Calcutta
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Camps and Trails in China
+by Roy Chapman Andrews and Yvette Borup Andrews
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CAMPS AND TRAILS IN CHINA ***
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