Peking to Lhasa : vol.1 / Page 313 (Color Image)

0313	Peking to Lhasa : vol.1

THE LAST TREK 229

Chinese. A few were Mosu. He said the tend-

ency in these parts was for the Chinese to

become Tibetanised. When the old mission had

been burnt two French priests were decapitated.

Forest, the botanist, after eight days' wanderings

in the mountains among the Lisu, escaped to

Hsiao-wei-si.

One of Pereira's muleteers died during the

night of malignant malaria. Père Ouvrard said

that this disease was very prevalent in these parts.

Regarding burial Père Ouvrard said that the

Tibetans usually bury the corpse temporarily, and

when decomposed dig it up, burn the bones in a

vase and bury them again. The poorer either

take the corpse on to the hills to be devoured by

wild animals or else dump it in the Mekong. If

it sticks on the rocks they push it off again lest

the Christians would take it up for re-burial.

The rainfall in normal years occurs in July,

August and September. But in the present year

there had been very little rain, and the maize

crop, on which the people rely, had failed, and

there would in consequence be a famine from

here to Hsiao-wei-si, about 70 miles farther south,

and the people would either have to go west to

the Salween, where the harvest was good, or else

depend upon buck-wheat.

Slaves are kept by the Tibetans and Mosu of

these parts, but they are well treated. There are

no Lisu north of Tze-ku, but the Mosu extend

nearly to Yakalo, where they are mixed up in

separate villages with the Tibetans. The Mosu

are born soldiers. Two or three hundred years

ago, when they were a powerful independent race,

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