inhabitants. They were pleasant enough and always greeted us with a smile
and salutation, but their brains seemed not to have kept pace with their
bodies and when asked the simplest question they would only stare stupidly
without the slightest glimmering of intelligence.

It required an hour's questioning of a dozen or more people to glean that
there were no hunters in the village where they had lived all their lives,
but Wu, our interpreter, finally discovered a Chinese who told us of a
hunter in the mountains. He asked how far and the answer was "Not very
far."

"Well, is it ten _li_?"

"I don't know how many _li_."

"Have you ever been there?"

"Yes; it is only a few steps."

"How long will it take to get there?"

"About the time of one meal."

We were not to be deceived, for we had had experience with native ideas of
distance, and we ate our tiffin before starting out on the "few steps." A
steep trail led up the valley and after three hours of steady riding we
reached the hunter's village of three large houses on a flat strip of
cleared ground in the midst of a dense forest.

The people looked much like those of Phete but were rather anemic
specimens, and five out of eight had enormous goiters. They were
exceedingly shy at first, watching us with side glances and through cracks
in the wall. Wu learned that we were the first white persons they had ever
seen. I imagine that much of their unhealthiness was due to too close
intermarriage, for these families had little intercourse with the people in
Phete who were only "a few steps" away.

As we were leaving they began to eat their supper in the courtyard. The
principal dish consisted of mixed cornmeal and rice, boiled squash and
green vegetables. All the women were busy husking corn which was hung to
dry on great racks about the house. These racks we had noticed in every
village since leaving Li-chiang and they seemed to be in universal use in
the north.

The hunter had a flock of sheep and we purchased one for $4.40 (Mexican)
but there was considerable difficulty in paying for it since these people
had never seen Chinese money even though living in China itself. For
currency they used chunks of silver the size of a walnut and worth about
one dollar (Mexican). The Chinese guide finally persuaded the people of the
genuineness of our money and we purchased a few eggs and a little very
delicious wild honey besides the sheep. These people as well as those of
P