The Beaver herald. [volume] (Beaver, O.T. [Okla.]) 1895-1923, 1916-12-14

Nlf uhlilf VI ulfANAAALfu AAAhtH
called by the Chinese "wild
men, and their homes 'barbarism
caves These aboriginal tribesmen
are scattered freely through nearly all
parts Of the province, but occupy prin-
cipally the great north and northwest
sections.
II we draw a line across the map
Just west Of KueIlln in the north and
Nanking in the south. we viii find that
with the exception OF Lungchow on
the Annamese border. by far the great
er half OF the province has no estab-
iished Christian work whatever. In
this neglected region there are numer-
Gus walled cities. market towns and
villages, all teeming with human life.
The great majority of the inhabitants
of these vast regions are aborigines,
variously called Mao, Yao, Tung and
Chuang. These tribes have so inter-
married with the Chinese that they
have adopted most Of the latter's Gus
toms, including mode of dress, but re-
tain their own form Of speech. which,
though monosyllablc, Is still quite dis
tinct from the Chinese language.
Some OF these tribesmen are met
with In great numbers along the road
leading TO Tinglinkai. The scenery
along this route is beautiful, indeed,
writes Liuchowbu correspondent of
the North Darby Mail. In places one
must walk for hours high up on the
mountain side, while 30 feet below
rushes a foaming mountain stream.
The valley is narrow and on either
side tower huge granite mountains,
wooded almost TO the summit with II
stunted growth Of fir, while far below
by the gurgling stream the slender
bamboos grouping shyly together, bend
gracefully over the rushing waters.
The path Is tortuous one, winding In
and out round the many bends. Here
and there n homestead ISn be seen
guarding a small section OF terraced
paddy fields, while to secure irrigation
20 his little farm the ingenious settler
has to run hollow bamboo pipes from
mountain spring, thus conveying the
crystal water to his home first. and
then from terrace to terrace all the
way down the mountain side, irrigat-
Ing each small field.
These people belong TO the Yao
tribe. They have no written language
of their own. Those who have had
any schooling whatever have studied
the Chinese characters and can speak
broken Mandarin as well as their
own dialect. The dress OF the men is
~. - al.
ems dress differs somewhat. Their
blouses, instead OF buttoning on the
right side, Chinese style, come together
In the front, and meet at the neck
In a sort OF sailor collar. Some of the
women wear hlgh-crowned hats, gay
ly colored and profusely ornamented
by numerous strings OF beads that hang
about the shoulders and down the
back. Others have Nat, thin cloth
covered board on their heads made in
sort OF Mother Hubbard" bonnet.
Still others of the poorest classes sim
ply wrap their heads with long blue
cloth.
AS the tribe lives exclusively in the
mountain regions, where rice cannot
be cultivated in large quantities, their
diet consists for the most part of corn,
maize and other grains, with a plenti-
ful supply of vegetables and sweet po-
tatoes. While extremely shy and re-
firing. still when once conversation
can be entered upon we found them
very friendly.
First Sight Of White Man.
On one occasion while travelling in
their district we had an amusing ex-
perience. After traversing the COM
paratiyely level road from Linhsi to
Shanih we entered wilder, more
sparsely populated section Of the coun-
try, where the most ordinary food,
such as rice and native vegetables, be-
came our staple fare. We reached Il
small village about noon, and after
partaklng Of some red-colored rice and
some greens we continued our Jour
ney westward. Our path now led us
up high mountain, and for some ten
or more we gradually ascendcd,
when, coming suddenly around bend
In the road, we met n number of abo-
Tiginal women who were out ON the
mountain gathering fuel.
They had never seen white man
before and evidently did not care TO
see much OF one now. For a moment
they stood in amazement and looked
at US. but only for a moment; then
they dashed of the road and down the
mountain side like frightened deer,
and were soon out Of sight among the
Wild grass and scrubby fir trees. We
atOod both Dained and amused paIned