This was the Cassia, and I can find no words more suitable to describe it than those of Polo which I have just used.”—H. C.]

Ethnology.-The Chinese at Ch'êng-tu fu, according to Richthofen, classify the aborigines of the Sze-ch'wan frontier as Man-tzu, Lolo, Si-fan, and Tibetan. Of these the Si-fan are furthest north, and extend far into Tibet. The Man-tzu (properly so called) are regarded as the remnant of the ancient occupants of Sze-ch'wan, and now dwell in the mountains about the parallel 30°, and along the Lhása road, Ta-t'sien lu being about the centre of their tract. The Lolo are the wildest and most independent, occupying the mountains on the left of the Kin-sha Kiang where it runs northwards (see above p. 48, and below p. 69) and also to some extent on its right. The Tibetan tribes lie to the west of the Man-tzu, and to the west of Kien-ch'ang. (See next chapter.)

Towards the Lan-ts'ang Kiang is the quasi-Tibetan tribe called by the Chinese Mossos, by the Tibetans Guions, and between the Lan-ts'ang and the Lú-Kiang or Salwen are the Lissús, wild hill-robbers and great musk hunters, like those described by Polo at p. 45. Garnier, who gives these latter particulars, mentions that near the confluence of the Yalung and Kin-sha Kiang there are tribes called Pa-i, as there are in the south of Yun-nan, and, like the latter, of distinctly Shan or Laotian character. He also speaks of Si-fan tribes in the vicinity of Li-kiang fu, and coming south of the Kin-sha Kiang even to the east of Ta-li. Of these are told such loose tales as Polo tells of Tebet and Caindu.

[In the Topography of the Yun-nan Province (edition of 1836) there is a catalogue of 141 classes of aborigines, each with a separate name and illustration, without any attempt to arrive at a broader classification. Mr. Bourne has been led to the conviction that exclusive of the Tibetans (including Si-fan and Ku-tsung), there are but three great non-Chinese races in Southern China: the Lolo, the Shan, and the Miao-tzu. (Report, China, No. 1, 1888, p. 87.) This classification is adopted by Dr. Deblenne. (Mission Lyonnaise.)

Man-tzu, Man, is a general name for "barbarian" (see my note in Odoric de Pordenone, p. 248 seqq.); it is applied as well to the Lolo as to the Si-fan.

Mr. Parker remarks (China Review, XX. p. 345) that the epithet of Man-tzů, or "barbarians," dates from the time when the Shans, Annamese, Miao-tzů, etc., occupied nearly all South China, for it is essentially to the Indo-Chinese that the term Man-tzŭ belongs.

Mr. Hosie writes (Three years in W. China, 122): "At the time when Marco Polo passed through Caindu, this country was in the possession of the Si-fans. . . . At the present day, they occupy the country to the west, and are known under the generic name of Man-tzu."

"It has already been remarked that Si-fan, convertible with Man-tzů, is a loose Chinese expression of no ethnological value, meaning nothing more than Western barbarians; but in a more restricted sense it is used to designate a people (or peoples) which inhabits the valley of the Yalung and the upper T'ung, with contiguous valleys and ranges, from about the twenty-seventh parallel to the borders of Koko-nor. This people is sub-divided into eighteen tribes." (Baber, p. 81.)

Si-fan or Pa-tsiu is the name by which the Chinese call the Tibetan tribes which occupy part of Western China. (Devéria, p. 167.)

Dr. Bretschneider writes (Med. Res. II. p. 24): "The north-eastern part of Tibet was sometimes designated by the Chinese name Si-fan, and Hyacinth [Bitchurin] is of opinion that in ancient times this name was even applied to the whole of Tibet. Si-fan means, 'Western Barbarians.' The biographer of HiuenTsang reports that when this traveller, in 629, visited Liang-chau (in the province of Kan-Suh), this city was the entrepôt for merchants from Si-fan and the countries east of the Ts'ung-ling mountains. In the history of the Hia and Tangut Empire (in the Sung-shi) we read, s. a. 1003, that the founder of this Empire invaded Si-fan and then proceeded to Si-liang (Liang-chau). The Yuen-shi reports, s. a. 1268: The (Mongol) Emperor ordered Meng-gu-dai to invade Si-fan with 6000 men.' The

name Si-fan appears also in ch. ccii., biography of Dan-ba." It is stated in the Ming-shi, "that the name Si-fan is applied to the territory situated beyond the frontiers of the Chinese provinces of Shen-si (then including the eastern part of present Kan-Suh) and Sze-ch'wan, and inhabited by various tribes of Tangut race, anciently known in Chinese history under the name of Si Kiang. . . . The Kuang yu ki notices that

Si-fan comprises the territory of the south-west of Shen-si, west of Sze-ch'wan and northwest of Yun-nan. . . . The tribute presented by the Sifan tribes to the Emperor used to be carried to the court at Peking by way of Ya-chau in Sze-ch'wan." (Bretschneider, 203.) The Tangutans of Prjevalsky, north-east of Tibet, in the country of Kuku nor, correspond to the Sifan.

"The Ta-tu River may be looked upon as the southern limit of the region inhabited by Sifan tribes, and the northern boundary of the Lolo country which stretches southwards to the Yang-tzu and east from the valley of Kien-ch'ang towards the right bank of the Min." (Hosie, p. 102.)

To Mr. E. C. Baber we owe the most valuable information regarding the Lolo people:

"Lolo' is itself a word of insult, of unknown Chinese origin, which should not be used in their presence, although they excuse it and will even sometimes employ it in the case of ignorant strangers. In the report of Governor-General Lo Pingchang, above quoted, they are called 'I,' the term applied by Chinese to Europeans. They themselves have no objection to being styled 'I-chia' (I families), but that word is not their native name. Near Ma-pien they call themselves 'Lo-su'; in the neighbourhood of Lui-po T'ing their name is 'No-su or Ngo-su' (possibly a mere variant of 'Lo-su'); near Hui-li-chou the term is 'Lé-su-the syllable Lé being pronounced as in French. The subject tribes on the T'ung River, near Mount Wa, also name themselves 'Ngo-su.' I have found the latter people speak very disrespectfully of

Black Lolo.

the Lé-su, which argues an internal distinction; but there can be no doubt that they are the same race, and speak the same language, though with minor differences of dialect." (Baber, Travels, 66-67.)

"With very rare exceptions the male Lolo, rich or poor, free or subject, may be instantly known by his horn. All his hair is gathered into a knot over his forehead and there twisted up in a cotton cloth so as to resemble the horn of a unicorn. The

horn with its wrapper is sometimes a good nine inches long. They consider this coiffure sacred, so at least I was told, and even those who wear a short pig-tail for convenience in entering Chinese territory still conserve the indigenous horn, concealed for the occasion under the folds of the Sze-ch'wan turban." (Baber, p. 61.) See these horns on figures, Bk. II. ch. Iviii.

"The principal clothing of a Lolo is his mantle, a capacious sleeveless garment of grey or black felt gathered round his neck by a string, and reaching nearly to his

heels. In the case of the better classes the mantle is of fine felt-in great request among the Chinese-and has a fringe of cotton-web round its lower border. For journeys on horseback they have a similar cloak differing only in being slit half-way up the back; a wide lappet covering the opening lies easily along the loins and croup of the horse. The colour of the felt is originally grey, but becomes brown-black or black, in process of time. It is said that the insects which haunt humanity never infest these gabardines. The Lolo generally gathers this garment closely round his shoulders and crosses his arms inside. His legs, clothed in trowsers of Chinese cotton, are swathed in felt bandages bound on with strings, and he has not yet been super-civilised into the use of foot-g -gear. In summer a cotton cloak is often substituted for the felt mantle. The hat, serving equally for an umbrella, is woven of bamboo, in a low conical shape, and is covered with felt. Crouching in his felt mantle under this roof of felt the hardy Lolo is impervious to wind or rain.” (Baber, Travels, 61-62.)

or

"The word, 'Black-bone,' is generally used by the Chinese as a name for the independent Lolos, but in the mouth of a Lolo it seems to mean a 'freeman' 'noble,' in which sense it is not a whit more absurd than the blue-blood,' of Europeans. The 'White-bones,' an inferior class, but still Lolo by birth, are, so far as I could understand, the vassals and retainers of the patricians-the people, in fact. A third class consists of Wa-tzu, or slaves, who are all captive Chinese. It does not appear whether the servile class is sub-divided, but, at any rate, the slaves born in Lolodom are treated with more consideration than those who have been captured in slave-hunts." (Baber, Travels, 67.)

According to the French missionary, Paul Vial (Les Lolos, Shang-hai, 1898) the Lolos say that they come from the country situated between Tibet and Burma. The proper manner to address a Lolo in Chinese is Lao-pen-kia. The book of Father Vial contains a very valuable chapter on the writing of the Lolos. Mr. F. S. A. Bourne writes (Report, China, No. 1. 1888, p. 88):-" The old Chinese name for this race was Ts'uan Man'-'Ts'uan barbarians,' a name taken from one of their chiefs. The Yun-nan Topography says:-'The name of "Ts'uan Man" is a very ancient one, and originally the tribes of Ts'uan were very numerous. There was that called "Lu-lu Man," for instance, now improperly called "Lo-Lo." These people call themselves Nersu,' and the vocabularies show that they stretch in scattered comImunities as far as Ssu-mao and along the whole southern border of Yun-nan. It appears from the Topography that they are found also on the Burmese border."

The Moso call themselves Nashi and are called Djiung by the Tibetans; their ancient capital is Li-kiang fu which was taken by their chief Mong-ts'u under the Sung Dynasty; the Mongols made of their country the kingdom of Chaghan-djang. Li-kiang is the territory of Yuê-si Chao, called also Mo-sie (Moso), one of the six Chao of Nan-Chao. The Moso of Li-kiang call themselves Ho. They have an epic styled Djiung-Ling (Moso Division) recounting the invasion of part of Tibet by the Moso. The Moso were submitted during the 8th century, by the King of Nan-Chao. They have a special hieroglyphic scrip, a specimen of which has been given by Devéria. (Frontière, p. 166.) A manuscript was secured by Captain Gill, on the frontier east of Li-t'ang, and presented by him to the British Museum (Add. MSS. Or. 2162); T. de Lacouperie gave a facsimile of it. (Plates I., II. of Beginnings of Writing.) Prince Henri d'Orléans and M. Bonin both brought home a Moso manuscript with a Chinese explanation.

Dr. Anderson (Exped. to Yunnan, Calcutta, p. 136) says the Li-sus, or Lissaus are "a small hill-people, with fair, round, flat faces, high cheek bones, and some little obliquity of the eye." These Li-su or Li-siè, are scattered throughout the Yunnanese prefectures of Yao-ngan, Li-kiang, Ta-li and Yung-ch'ang; they were already in Yun-Nan in the 4th century when the Chinese general Ch'u Chouang-kiao entered the country. (Devéria, Front., p. 164.)

The Pa-y or P'o-y formed under the Han Dynasty the principality of P'o-tsiu and under the T'ang Dynasty the tribes of Pu-hiung and of Si-ngo, which were among the

thirty-seven tribes dependent on the ancient state of Nan-Chao and occupied the territory of the sub-prefectures of Kiang-Chuen (Ch'êng-kiang fu) and of Si-ngo (Lin-ngan fu). They submitted to China at the beginning of the Yuen Dynasty; their country bordered upon Burma (Mien-tien) and Ch’ê-li or Kiang-Hung (Xieng-Hung), in Yun-Nan, on the right bank of the Mekong River. According to Chinese tradition, the Pa-y descended from Muong Tsiu-ch'u, ninth son of Ti Muong-tsiu, son of Piao-tsiu-ti (Asôka). Devéria gives (p. 105) a specimen of the Pa-y writing (16th century). (Deveria, Front., 99, 117; Bourne, Report, p. 88.) Chapter iv. of the Chinese work, Sze-i-kwan-kao, is devoted to the Pa-y, including the sub-divisions of Muong-Yang, Muong-Ting, Nan-tien, Tsien-ngaï, Lung-chuen, Wei-yuan, Wan-tien, Chen-k'ang, Ta-how, Mang-shi, Kin-tung, Ho-tsin, Cho-lo tien. (Devéria, Mél. de Harlez, p. 97.) I give a specimen of Pa-yi writing from a Chinese work purchased by Father Amiot at Peking, now in the Paris National Library (Fonds chinois, No. 986). (See on this scrip, F. W. K. Müller, Toung-Pao, III. p. 1, and V. p. 329; E. H. Parker, The Muong Language, China Review, I. 1891, p. 267; P. Lefevre-Pontalis, Etudes sur quelques alphabets et vocab. Thais, T'oung Pao, III. pp. 39-64.)—H. C.] These ethnological matters have to be handled cautiously, for there is great ambiguity in the nomenclature. Thus Man-tzu is often used generically for aborigines, and the Lolos of Richthofen are called Man-tzŭ by Garnier and Blakiston; whilst Lolo again has in Yun-nan apparently a very comprehensive generic meaning, and is so used by Garnier. (Richt. Letter VII. 67-68 and MS. notes; Garnier, I. 519 seqq. [T. W. Kingsmill, Han Wu-ti, China Review, XXV. 103-109.])

CHAPTER XLVIII.

CONCERNING THE PROVINCE OF CARAJAN.

When you have passed that River you enter on the province of CARAJAN, which is so large that it includes seven kingdoms. It lies towards the west; the people are Idolaters, and they are subject to the Great Kaan. A son of his, however, is there as King of the country, by name ESSENTIMUR; a very great and rich and puissant Prince; and he well and justly rules his dominion, for he is a wise man, and a valiant.

After leaving the river that I spoke of, you go five days' journey towards the west, meeting with numerous towns and villages. The country is one in which excellent horses are bred, and the people live by cattle and agriculture. They have a language of their own which is passing hard to understand. At the end of those five days' journey you come to the capital, which is