OCR Text |
Show A.OR1CULTURE, IN SOUTH CHINA THE I'KOVIXCE of Kuangsi, South China, was originally the home of uncivilized tribes called by the Chinese "wild men," and their homes "barbarism caves." Thesr. aboriginal tribesmen are scattered freely through nearly all parts of the province, but occupy principally prin-cipally the great north and northwest sections. If we draw a line across the map just west of Kueilin in the north and Nanking in the south, we will find that with the exception of Lungchow on the Annamese border, by far the greater great-er half of the province has no established estab-lished Christian work whatever. In this neglected region there are numerous numer-ous 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 Miao, Yao, Tung and C'huang. These tribes have so intermarried inter-married with the Chinese that they have adopted most of the latter's customs, cus-toms, including mode of dress, but retain re-tain their own form of speech. 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 a Liuchowbu correspondent of the North Darby Mail. In places one must walk for hours high up on the mountain side, while 50 feet below rushes a foaming mountain stream. The valley is narrow and on either 6ide tower huge granite mountains, wooded almost to the summit with a stunted growth of fir, while far below by the gurgling stream the slender bamboos grouping shyly together, bend gracefully over the rushing waters, j The path is a tortuous one, winding in and out round the many bends. Here itnd there a homestead can be seen guarding a small section of terraced paddy fields, while to secure irrigation to his little farm the ingenious settler has to run hollow bamboo pipes from' a mountain spring, thus conveying the crystal water to his home first, and then from terrace to terrace all the way dow-n the mountain side, Irrigating 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 a broken Mandarin as well as their own dialect. The dress of the men is like that of the Chinese, but the women's wom-en's 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 high-crowned hats, gay-ly gay-ly colored and profusely ornamented by numerous strings of beads that hang about the shoulders and down the back. Others have a flat, thin cloth-covered cloth-covered board on their heads made in a sort of "Mother Hubbard" bonnet. Still others of the poorest classes simply sim-ply wrap their heads with a 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 plentiful plenti-ful supply of vegetables and sweet po tatoes. While extremely shy and retiring, re-tiring, still when once a conversation can be entered upon we found them very friendly. First Sight cf a White Man. On one occasion while traveling in their district we had an amusing experience. ex-perience. After traversing the comparatively com-paratively level road from Linhsl to Shanih we entered a wilder, more sparsely populated section of the country, coun-try, where the most, ordinary food, such as rice and native vegetables, became be-came our staple fare. We reached a small village about noon, and after partaking of some red-colored rice and some greens we continued our journey jour-ney westward. Our path now led us tip a high mountain, aud for some ten 11 or more we gradually ascended, when, coming suddenly around a bend in the road, wo met a number of aboriginal abo-riginal women who were out on the mountain gathering fuel. They had never seen a white man before and evidently did not care to see much of one now. l-'or a moment 1 hoy stood in amazement and looked at us, but only for a moment; then they dashed off the road and down the, mountain side like frightened deer, and wore soon out of sight among the. wild grass and scrubby fir trees. We stood, both pained and amused ; pained to see them so frightened at us who were their friends, and yet amused at their "rapid transit" aud the speed with which they vanished from view. When we reached the summit of the mountain, we stood and "viewed the landscape o'er." East, west, north and south, the lofty mountains rose, range beyond range, as far as the eye could see, while the river we had just left behind could be seen here and there, threading its serpentine way in and out among the foothills. Among the Tung Tribes. Upon reaching the mountain base we found a compact village nestling among the foothills. The people belonged be-longed to another tribe, the Tungs, who, like their neighbors, the Yaos, have their homes among the tribe. The homes the people lived in were all two-story dwellings. The ground floor was used as a cow stable or pig sty, while the people themselves occupy oc-cupy the rooms above. The women wear black kilts. These are made with numerous fine tucks, varying in width and number according accord-ing to the amount of cloth on hand at the time of making. Their limbs were also bound with the same goods or encased en-cased in cloth leggings. Their wrists and ankles were ornamented with silver sil-ver rings, while other rings varying in size and numbering from one to five were hanging around their necks. Their sailorlike blouses were fastened in the front with bright glass or brass buttons, and their feet were adorned with pretty homemade shoes that turned up at the toes. The journey to the city of Ktlchow was uneventful, Our road was on an ascending scale, each day climbing higher than the day before, until sometimes the mountain peaks seemed to pierce the blue above. Two days after af-ter leaving Linhsi we crossed over the southern table land, after which all streams were found to be flowing northward down through the province of Hunan to' join the turbid water of the great Yangtzekiang. Kuchow a Heterogeneous City. As we neared the city our caravan was sighted, and seeing it a small boy was soon scurrying along the street bare-headed, and calling to the people to, "Quick, look, see." It had the desired de-sired effect, for out of every store the crowds poured until we were surrounded sur-rounded by a motley throng, which increased in-creased in numbers as we proceeded. This city, in which we rested over Sunday, is the most heterogeneous I have yet passed through. Cantonese and Kuangsi merchants compete with each other in the busy business streets ; Hunanese and Kueichow coolies cool-ies jostle against each other in the narrow thoroughfares, while Yao, Mlao, Tung and Ling tribesmen bring their various wares here and, sitting down on the river bank outside the. city, spread them out for sale. Here were gathered people of all descriptions descrip-tions ; women clad in skirts, and women wom-en wearing trousers, old women with their hair done up in a knot, young women wearing showy bracelets, mammoth mam-moth earrings and silver rings encircling encir-cling the neck, while the ankles of the more wealthy were also ornamented with the same glittering metal. There were men with queues and men without with-out them ; some with heads bound round with cloth, and others with hair done up in a ball and fastened In place with a comb ; while here and there among the crowd the Tung men could be distinguished by their wearing earrings ear-rings in the left ear as a charm to ward off misfortune and disease. |