hundred feet could place an
arrow in a six-inch circle four times out of five. We found later that
crossbows are in common use throughout the more remote parts of Yuen-nan and
were only another evidence that we had suddenly dropped back into the
Middle Ages and, with our high-power rifles and twentieth century
equipment, were anachronisms.

The natives are able to obtain a good deal of game even with such primitive
weapons for they depend largely upon dogs which bring gorals and serows to
bay against a cliff and hold them until the men arrive. The dogs are a
mongrel breed which appears to be largely hound, and some are really
excellent hunters. White is the usual color but a few are mixed black and
brown, or fox red. Hotenfa, one of our Mosos, owned a good pack and we all
came to love its big red leader. This fine dog could be depended upon to
dig out game if there was any in the mountains, but his life with us was
short for he was killed by our first serow. Hotenfa was inconsolable and
the tears he shed were in sincere sorrow for the loss of a faithful friend.

Almost every family owns a dog. Some of those we saw while passing through
Chinese villages were nauseating in their unsightliness, for at least
thirty per cent of them were more or less diseased. Barely able to walk,
they would stagger across the street or lie in the gutter in indescribable
filth. One longed to put them out of their misery with a bullet but,
although they seemed to belong to nobody, if one was killed an owner
appeared like magic to quarrel over the damages.

The dogs of the non-Chinese tribes were in fairly good condition and there
seemed to be comparatively little disease among them. Our hunters treated
their hounds kindly and fed them well, but the animals themselves, although
loyal to their masters, manifested but little affection. In Korea dogs are
eaten by the natives, but none of the tribes with which we came in contact
in Yuen-nan used them for food.

On our first day in the temple Heller went up the Snow Mountain for a
reconnoissance and the party secured a fine porcupine. It is quite a
different animal from the American tree porcupines and represents a genus
(_Hystrix_) which is found in Asia, Africa, and southern Europe. This
species lives in burrows and, when hunting big game, we were often greatly
annoyed to find that our dogs had followed the trail of one of these
animals. We would arrive to see the hounds dancing about the burro