Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1919-08-02

Editor Times Republican.
The first draft of this letter was
written In a chapel In n Mao village
mp in the mountains some twelve or
fifteen miles from Kachek, Two days
later our party of Chinese ovangel-
list. n bible woman, one of the young
women who graduated from our school
last year. myself, cook and two car
riers returned to Kachek. making 1t
just nineteen days since we had left.
During our trips we visited ten of the
twelve Mao chapels and altho We did
not cover n great distance we climbed
mountains and had various adventures.
The Eternal Pionsers.
The Miaos are are not Hiananest but
are distinct people with their own
language and customs. They are found
also in the provinces OF Yunnan, Kwe-
ichow and Kwangsi. They do not have
rice fields as the Chinese and Lois do
but move their villages frequently,
clearing the mountain sides and plant
ing their upland rice, sweet potatoes
and corn in the clearing until the Ter
tility is exhausted, and then going to
another location. AS Miss Schaeffer
put II one day. they are 1.-THE eternal
pioneers. They make their houses
without the use of a single nail. The
walls are made of bamboo chinked vita
mud or else of split bamboo woven in
to screen, the roof matched with fan
palm leaves, rattan or coarse grass.
All the fastenings are with amboo or
rattan withers. The floors are Of mud.
nf hn
and one-half feet high but the roof
projects over the wall to within about
two feet Of the ground. 1t is easier to
enter under the caves at the end OF
the house and walk along close to the
side of the house until you come to the
door. which usually is in the middle
Of the thirty-foot house. The chapels
in the villages are put up the same
way. The cooking is done over lire
built on the floor, three stones being
set up for a stove and the iron caul-
dron for cooking rice set up on them.
The men wear the same costume as
the Chinese except for slight differ
ence in the way the coats are fastened.
The women have a most picturesque
costume They buy rather heavy cloth
from the traders and dye it dark blue.
They make their coats long, reaching
to the knee, with embroidered collar
bands, cuffs and facings of red, and
with an embroidered band of red as a
girdle. They also wear a very short
skirt which is dyed in a peculiar fash-
ion. Hot beeSwaX is laid on the un-
colored goods in a peculiar pattern OF
bamb boo stalks, trees. etc. and then the
dye applied. The dye does not pen
citrate the wax and when the wax is
washed off the pattern remains a very
light blush white. Dark blue puttees
tied with red complete the clothing.
The headdress consists OF a hood e1-
feet sometimes embroidered and some
times not, and beautifully emhroider-
ed head kerchief. The kerchief is OF
the same dark blue cloth and it takes
a skilled sewer a month OF larry
steady work to make one. There Is .
central motif and wide border. Some
of the work Is cross stitch. All the h&-
ures have a meaning but the women
have difficulty explaining them In
Hainonese. Among them are the
dragon, tortoise, trees. dog, horses,
CllCheOS, OH US, putlSA iAco' AS"SAS
various plants chains, fans, men anu
children. have not been able to prove
however that any distinctive pattern
belongs to any special family or clan.
The babies wear embroidered caps OF
the same material and on one of the
cans | found a symbol which the wo-
man said was a special charm against
malaria. The babies are carried strap
ped on their mothers backs, protected
from the sun and rain by aGbiS palm
leaf. the stalk stuck under the pano
crossed over the mothers shoulders.
The babies sleep in hammocks made OF
babies sleep in hammocks mao Oh
pieces of cloth fastened with bamboo
and swung from the roof
Carrying the Communion.
We left Kachek one Wednesday eve
ming with IT. By'ers and the three
elders of the Kachek church, who were
going up to the village of the Mao
chief to hold communion there for the
Miaos. We spent the first night IN
little river boats going up river ABOUT
twenty miles. Early in the morning
we landed at little place called six
footed Ditch" where there used to be a
house or two, but which robbers had