could be begun," based on a knowledge of the written character in use among the Buddhist and Christian Tai elsewhere. Let us on the outposts join forces in one grand advance to take this land for Christ which has been so long under the dominion of Satan.

This would be in accordance with the recommendations of the Conference held in Canton January 30-February 4, 1913, representing churches and missions in Fukien, Kwangtung, and Kwangsi, under the presidency of Dr. J. R. Mott, Chairman of the Continuation Committee of the Edinburgh World Missionary Conference, which says:

That in opening work in fields which are at present unoccupied, the Missionary Societies consult one another and that regard be had to the need for men of special qualifications for particular fields.

Of the three provinces represented at this conference, Kwangtung and Fukien are relatively well occupied, while Kwangsi is comparativly destitute. Kwangsi has an estimat ed population of 8,000,000 with 47 missionaries. Of the 72 walled cities only 9 have resident missionaries. Of the remaining 63 cities only 8 have chapels in charge of Chinese evangelists. Thus 55 cities with perhaps an average popula tion of 30,000 are without regular workers either Chinese or foreign. The above does not include over 1200 market towns, sometimes very large and important, and over 45,000 villages scattered throughout the province, the majority of which are not within any effective influence of any mission work. The whole northwestern half is practically untouched.

The country is mountainous and travel difficult. Mention should be made of a population of over one million aborigines among whom practically no direct Christian work has been attempted. The joint Commission estimated them at two million.

These two provinces, adjacent to the area covered by this conference, and coming within the purview of no other of the Continuation Committee's Conferences, must be mentioned as the least occupied provinces of the Republic. Kweichou is the more destitute, with one foreign missionary to 332,000 people and Yünnan next, with one to 326,000 not including Roman Catholics.

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The provinces of Yünnan and Kwangsi, Kweichou and Kansu in the order of their need are largely unoccu pied, and offer extensive spheres for missions wishing to undertake work in a new field in China. The neglected condition of these vast regions is indeed deplorable.

These help to form the big gap in the missionary map. At the time of the present writing, six years later, we as yet know of no progressive advance in all this region, for the Tai; unless this new station at Chiengrung, down in the pocket of the Yünnan southern border, might be designated as such, and the appointments of Mr. Metcalf on the Yangtze and Mr. Oldfield in Wu Chow for Tai work.

This is not only a great task, but also an urgent one. Never before was the conscience of Christendom so tender as to the urgency of immediate occupation of the world-field. The southeast corner of Asia is one of the largest of the unoccupied fields. The millions of unreached Tai people there constitute a large and important part of this region of darkness; let the church's conscience awake and respond to the urgency of immediate occupation of this field.

Two special considerations emphasize the urgency. One is the certainty that the present simplicity and receptivity of the people will be lost through delay; we shall miss our great op portunity. The other is that through delay the people themselves will be lost. For, unlike lands where many agencies are at work, if we dally and delay, the work will not be done at all. The advance waits wholly upon the church. Some missionaries see the vision till they are weighed down with its tremendous import. Never was there a clearer call. It is not optional whether the church will support and push this work or not. It is a sacred obligation and the obligation is long overdue.

And there is abundance wherewith to meet this obligation. The price of a first-class limousine will open a new station. The price of a "very best" car will suffice for its annual upkeep. How many Christians are riding limousines who ought to match every one by founding a Tai Inland Mission station? How many readers are riding automobiles who ought to be riding ponies, and doctoring or teaching or preaching to Tai Highlanders ↑ In the call of the people themselves the church and the many organizations working for world-wide evangelization, who can fail to hear the striking of God's hour?

CHAPTER XII

THE TAI NUA

The literato Tai are found under four flags: the Chinese, the British, the Siamese, and the French. One cannot but regret, in this age when all things are becoming new, the passing of the strikingly characteristic picturesque flags of some of the countries of the Orient, notably the Peacock of Burma, the Chinese Dragon, and the Siamese White Elephant. But when we consider what these changes represent, that the new flags stand for liberty, fraternity, progress, development, world friendship, and cooperation, we cannot really regret the passing of the old regimes or their historic ensigns. For the Peacock is replaced by the flag of Great Britian, the old Dragon by the five barred emblem of the Chinese Republic, and the White Elephant by the red, white and blue five bars of the flag of New Siam.

These all wave gaily over the different branches of the Tai race; and the people, while clinging with marvelous tenacity to the language and customs of their own race, are more and more developing a patriotism and a loyalty to the country and the government in which they find themselves. Religion, however, always formed the strongest of ties; and the literate or Buddhist Tai seem much more closely related to each other than to the illiterate non-Buddhist brethren who are even closer to them geographically.

The country of the literate Tai may be approximately defined by taking the Mekong and Red River watershed as the boundary on the east; extending down to the lower Mekong and the Gulf of Siam on the south; and overlapping into Burma and Assam on the west; while the northern boundary may be drawn at about 25 degrees north latitude on the Salween, extending westward over into Burma and eastward to a point at about 24 degrees latitude on the Mekong and Red River watershed. It includes the Tai Nia and the Lü in China, the Khün and Ngio in Burma, the Laos State of French Indo-China, and the Yuan and Siamese in Siam.

Of the two branches of the literate Tai living in China, the

Tai Nüa and Tai Lü, the one farthest north is the Tai Nüa or Northern Tai, called by the British, "Chinese Shans." Among the principal districts of the Tai Nüa country are Muang Khwan, Muang Kung Ma, and Muang Baw. M.Khwan, according to Major Davies, is one of the largest and quite the richest of all the plains occupied by the Chinese Shans. The town is so surrounded by bamboo and banyan trees that it cannot be seen till one is almost in its streets. This is a common thing with Tai towns and villages. The town of M.Khwan contains 500 or 600 houses well built of soft bricks in Chinese style. It has a large monastery. The whole place is prosperous looking. The chief's new palace in the center of the town covers considerable space.

Major Davies reports Kung Ma as one of the largest and best governed Shan states in the province of Yünnan. It contains about 300 houses, is pleasantly situated on rising ground with an excellent climate. It is a prosperous place with a good many Chinese traders. The town is built on a grassy plateau measur ing about fifteen miles from north to south and about half this distance across. Two streams cross the plateau and most of the villages are situated along these streams, where they can cultivate their paddy fields, which are but narrow strips along the banks of the streams. The plateau is too high for irrigation.

Muang Baw, or Waw locally, the Wei Yuan of the Chinese, is named and famed for its salt wells. M. Baw is east of Mekong, M. Kung Ma is between the Salween and the Mekong, and M. Khwan is west of the Salween. There are numerous smaller Tai Nin districts between and around these, and some Chinese towns, besides various mountain tribes. The Lahu are the most numer ous in the southern part of the territory lying between the Mekong and Salween and the Lō-lõs are most numerous to the north and northeast.

The Tai Nüa people extend south to about 221⁄2 degrees north latitude and number about 600,000. These people are the same in customs, dress and speech except that those to the cast are probably more influenced by the Chinese in their local dialect and those to the west are more influenced by the Burmese and Ngio.

But this is a striking instance of what Buddhism has done for the language of the literate Tai. The Tai Nüa people, like most communities isolated in a mountainous district, use many locali

isms of speech. But the introduction of Buddhism from Kengtung over 260 years ago has brought in the Yuan tam vocabulary, that is the vocabulary of the Yuan sacred books, rich in Pali religious terms, as the recognized standard, now prevailing as far as the Salween. This, their book language, represents correct speech, the same standard prevailing for all the literate Tai down to Chiengmai, 35 or 40 caravan days' journey to the south.

What Buddhism has accomplished for the Khün and Lü and Tai Nüa, cannot Christianity do for the illiterate Tai "beyond the ranges?" Let us give them this standard written language of their own speech, books that they can learn to read and to understand when they read them or hear them read; and with this also give them, not a weary round of births and deaths, an arduous and confessedly hopeless system of merit making, but eternal life, the gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. For all the Tai Nüa in Yünnan, there is no missionary work and as far as I know, not a Christian; unless, indeed, as I like to believe, the seed sown in years past has brought forth fruit known only to God, and we will find it "after many days."

Our acquaintance with the Tai Nüa began in 1897 on our first visit to Kengtung. We were not long discovering that "the butcher and baker and candlestick maker" was each a Tai Nüa man. Does the Sawbwa or Chief wish to erect a new court house? The contract for all the work is let to Tai Nüa men. They fell and haul the timbers. They quarry and haul the foundation stones. If they do not burn all the tiles and brick they at least haul them. And they are the carpenters and masons who do all the building work. Tai Nüa build all the monasteries, and the houses of nobility. They cut and haul firewood for the town, and the squeaking and groaning of their buffalo carts, which the Chinese proverb says is "cheaper than grease," rends the evening air regularly at a certain season and can be heard a mile away. They butcher and market all the beef sold in the bazaar. Their fifteen large villages are the most industrious element in the population of the Kengtung plain.

The Lu are a stay-at-home folk, good farmers; while the Khün are roving traders. It is natural, therefore, that the Tai Nüa should cross the territory of the Lü and settle with the Khün who are traders like themselves.

The dress of the Tai Nüa women is in marked contrast to that of their Tai neighbors, the Lü and Kühn. Dress and turban