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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

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CHAP. XLVII.   ETHNOLOGY

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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 bis 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-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-tzit, 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." (Babel-, 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-I ia. 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 NIan'—` Ts'uan barbarians,' a name taken from one of their chiefs. The Yun-nan Topography says :—` The came 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 Ssű-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 11Nashi 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. '1 hey have an epic styled Djiuzzg 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 Be,; innings of Writing-.) Prince Henri d'Orléans and M. Bonin both brought home a Moso manuscript with a Chinese explanation.

Dr. Anderson (Exiled. to Yunnan, Calcutta, p. 136) says the Li-sus, or Lissaus are `" a small hill-people, with fair, rbund, flat faces, high cheek bones, and some little obliquity of the eye." These Li-su or Li-sié, 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. (Devtfria, Front., p. 164.)

The Pay or P'v y formed under the Ilan Dynasty the principality of P'o-tsiu and

under the Tang Dynasty the tribes of Pu-hiung and of Si-ngo, which were among the

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