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. lviii.
[Illustration: White Lolo.]
"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 trousers 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-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.)
"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' or '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.
I. 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 communities 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 Meng-ts'u under the Sung Dynasty; the Mongols made of their country
the kingdom of Chaghan-djang. Li-kiang is the territory of Yue-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
Deveria. (Frontiere, 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 SS. Or. 2162); T. de Lacouperie gave a facsimile of it.
(Plates I., II. of Beginnings of Writing.) Prince Henri d'Orleans 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-sie,
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. (Deveria,
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'eng-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'e-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 (Asoka). Deveria gives (p. 105) a specimen of the Pa-y writing
(16th century). (Deveria, Front., 99, 117; Bourne, Report, p. 88.)
Chapter iv.
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