The face of China, travels in East, North, Central and Western China; with some account of the new schools, universities, missions, and the old religious sacred places of Confucianism, Buddhism, and (14593217157)

Identifier: faceofchinatrav00kemp (find matches)
Title: The face of China, travels in East, North, Central and Western China; with some account of the new schools, universities, missions, and the old religious sacred places of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism
Year: 1909 (1900s)
Authors: Kemp, Emily Georgiana, 1860-
Subjects:
Publisher: New York, Duffield
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto



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in which therewere little heaps of offerings, each consisting of fiveoranges in front of every tablet. There were a numberof courtyards and some fine trees in them, especiallysome interesting specimens of the sensitive tree.—Ifyou scratch the trunk every twig quivers. There area great many insect trees throughout the whole dis-trict, in which the white wax insect is bred. Beforethey come out of the trunk little bunches of strawabout the size of two fingers are tied to it, in whichthe larvae are afterwards found. We were very sorrythat lack of time prevented our making an excursioninto the neighbouring district, which is inhabited byaboriginal tribes. The Wesleyan missionaries havebeen civilising some of these people, and one of theirnumber has successfully reduced the Miao languageto writing by an ingenious adaptation of Pitmansshorthand system. The tribesmen are able to readand write in a few weeks, and have taken to writingletters to one another like ducks to water. There are 210
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ch. xix The Road to Yunnan Fu many different tribes among the mountains, some very-shy and unapproachable, and with curious customs oftheir own. A member of the mission described to usa curious race that takes place in Babii land where theManzas live, but which had never been visited beforeby European women. The course is strewn with thefeathers of fowls, and the men wear very full, short,circular dark capes, and a sort of crest on their heads.Then they put their ponies at full gallop, and extendtheir arms so that they look like eagles with extendedwings as they sweep round the course ventre a terre^enveloped in a cloud of feathers and dust. Some ofthe tribes are very wild ; not infrequently the Lolos orIbien, as they prefer to be called, kidnap the Chineseand make them pay a heavy ransom, so that littletowers of refuge are built in this district. The num-ber of these aboriginal tribes is probably unknownto any one; we always heard conflicting accounts ofthem, and until recently no sy