inct from, with hardly a manner of daily life in common
with, the Chinese.

MISSION WORK AMONG THE MIAO

Whilst referring to mission work, it is a great privilege for the writer
to add a word of most deserved eulogy of the United Methodist Mission at
Chao-t'ong and Tongi-ch'uan-fu, and to the kindness shown by the
missionaries towards me when I came, an absolute stranger, among them in
May, 1909. It is to two members of this Mission that I owe a life-long
debt of gratitude, for it was Mr. and Mrs. Evans, of Tong-ch'uan-fu, who
saved my life, a week or two after I left Chao-t'ong, as is recorded in
a subsequent chapter.

It was in the old days of the Bible Christian Mission--than which the
individual members of no mission in the whole of China worked with more
zeal and lower stipends--that a most interesting development in the
mission took place.

The mass of the Miao are the serfs of the descendants of their ancient
kings, who are large landowners, and the Miao are tenants. In 1905 the
Miao heard of the Gospel, and came to listen to the preaching, and
thousands came in batches at one time and another to the mission house.
Their movements thus aroused suspicion among the Chinese, there was a
good deal of persecution and personal violence, and at one time it
looked as if there might be serious trouble. But the danger quieted
down. The chieftain gave land, the Miao contributed one hundred pounds
sterling, and themselves put up a chapel large enough to accommodate six
hundred people. A year later, a thousand at a time crowded their simple
sanctuary, and in 1907 nearly six thousand were members or probationers,
and the work has steadily progressed ever since.

I am indebted to the Rev. H. Parsons, who had charge of the work at the
time I passed through this district, and whose guest I was for several
months, for the following interesting details regarding the methods
adopted in the running of this enormous mission field. Mr. Parsons is
assisted in his work by his genial wife, who is a most ardent worker,
and a capable Miao linguist. Mrs. Parsons regularly addresses
congregations of several hundreds of Miao, and has traveled on journeys
often with her husband; and such work as hers, with several others in
this mission, is a testimony to the wisdom of a system advocating the
increase of the number of lady workers on the mission field in China.

THE NOU-SU (OR I-PIEN)

There is a class of people around Chao-t'ong wh