picture of the political condition of the Lü country in 1897. We can see quite a change in the country in 1919, due to the stern and implacable, but I think on the whole kindly, rule of the Chinese head Mandarin or chief official, called the director. As a Lü man said to me, "the British now rule the Khin country and the Chinese rule the Lü country, so we cannot war with each other any more." The border wars and plundering raids which so decimated the country are a thing of the past. The Director spends some months every year in these out-districts, wherever there is any disturbance, bringing them under order and control. An example of the promptness and efficiency of his methods is a story told us soon after we came here last year. A drunken soldier in the market picked up a market woman's basket of rice and hurled it at her, striking her in the chest. He was at once arrested and as soon as the woman died he was taken out and shot. The Director maintains a police force of Tai with only a small company of Chinese soldiers as guard. While brig andage is rife and all caravan routes unsafe even up to Szemao, in the Sipsawng Panna it is safe to go anywhere without a guard though the officials insist on our taking one. The Director is trying in every way to improve the country as well as the people. He makes roads and bridges, and washouts are promptly repaired. He says he would have had post and telegraph here long ere this had it not been for the war. He was previously stationed at the French border at Lao Kai on the railway for some years, and has many foreign ideas and some French man ners, With this explanation let us now return to the tour of 1897. As we were leaving Ch.Chüng there were many expressions of apparently sincere regret that we could not stay longer, and invitations to come and live among them. They offered to give buildings and everything we would need if we would come and teach them. The question "When will you come back," was of ten repeated and has haunted me through all these years for I have never yet been able to return to them. It was big market day when we left but the market was very poor nothing except native products at high prices. From the market place as far as Ban Lung the plain was very sparsely cultivated, most of it lying waste. But from Ban Lung onward to the west end of the plain, some eight or ten miles, the villages are thick, the plain highly cultivated, the people seemingly prosperous. There were ancient bunds all over the plain but they were not in good repair, until we reached Ban Lung. From there on the roads were excellent, bridges over both streams and canals, tile roofed, and the cornices and gables ornamented with glazed tiles. I saw some glazed pottery in the market. Everything there tended to confirm me in the opinion that the Lü are more industrious and hardier than the Khün or Yuan are. They are smaller in stature than the Khün but the Lü are a bolder and sturdier race, with bolder faults and virtues. I have grown to love the Tai Lü. They have village wells, walled and curbed with brick or stone, and usually roofed with tile or thatch. I saw one arched over with stone masonry. The covered bridges with seats on either side, inviting to coolness and rest and neighborly chat, are, I think, peculiar to the Lü country. Also the succession of crops, rice is followed by tobacco, pepper, peas, onions, peanuts, etc. Most of these are in large quantities planted by the acre instead of in little garden patches as in Siam. At our first stopping place on the return trip, we found the people curious, attentive but more thoughtful and respectful than farther north. They kept us up till late, singing, reading, preaching, and teaching. There were about forty houses in this village of Ban Nawng Pum. They cultivate hill crops like regular mountain people although they are Lü. Later we crossed the divide and the brooks were flowing to the Nam Lam instead of to the Nam Ha. Here we met many Kah and Wah mountain women, going to or returning from their fields. They carried heavy burdens in baskets on their backs, suspended by a band across the forehead. In addition they do a bit of spinning en route to keep from dying of ennui (?) A short spindle is carried in the hand, the thread to be spun is fastened to it, a quiet twist is given by the hand on the thigh, and the whole thing goes dangling in the air, till Mrs. Wah thinks it is twisted enough; then it is wound on the spindle, a fresh twist is given and the process keeps step with the march. The husband carries his load and the baby. Both the Kahs and the Wahs have adopted Buddhism and the dress and speech of the Lü people. Buddhism has solved the missionary problem by a process of absorption. The process has been slow but it has succeeded in changing them from wild head-hunters to safe and sane friends and neighbors. They now have temples and priests and use the Tai character. With changes of names and principles, these are the objects we seek to accomplish for them. Shall it be by absorption from the Tai Christians, or shall we give them regular doses of American Christianity That they are industrious was evident. That may be partly because of their environment. They have a real winter here. Snow falls at times. All the Kaws, Kahs, and Wahs whom I met, except one man and one woman, had features resembling the Malay, the Japanese, and the American Indian, suggesting a common origin. Most of the men had scanty beards and one man had reddish hair. Our stopping place that evening was near the "Footprint." This is the work of a gifted imagination. There is a hard red sandstone projecting above the ground about ten feet at the north and sloping to the south. It is ten feet wide and twelve long. On the sloping top is an irregular depression, which one of our men said might do very well for a rice mortar; but which the vivid imagination of some one has conjured as a footprint of Buddha. So a small temple has been erected over the stone and pious inscriptions in charcoal written on it. At Ban Mai Toy we found a Lü village of over a hundred houses. While the men were purchasing supplies I read from a tract on "The Way to Happiness" and explained it to a large crowd on a street corner. I had good attention and interest, and distributed a few books at the close. I noted extensive tea gardens near Ban Mai Toy. I have been told that much of what is known in commerce as Pu-erh tea comes from this region. I also noted at a little distance south of the village a little piece of boundary fence and a gate, separating this village from its neighbor. It probably also separates the territory of M. Law from that of M. Chê as all the villages we have passed coming this way are said to belong to M. Chê while from here on they belong to M. Law. At any rate this bit of nonsense in the way. of a boundary line was better kept up than we have seen elsewhere. I was told that its immediate purpose was to fence out outsiders when the villages were having devil feasts. Steep as the road was in this region we did not see a hill that was not cultivated. There we saw much stonework in walls and in sides of buildings, stones dressed in fairly good masonry. We spent a Sabbath there at Ban Hee in an old temple on |