Page:Chinese Life in the Tibetan Foothills.djvu/101

 into hatred and murder. Officials take advantage and use one faction against another; then secrets are divulged, mutual recriminations follow, and hatred is engendered which may last for generations, one victim after another on both sides being murdered in revenge. A son's duty to avenge a parent's wrong cannot be shirked.

Such conditions produce in members a cruel and relentless disposition, and foster a suspicious and revengeful nature.

As already mentioned, the place held by women in this secret society is not a small one. Many are sworn members, and the mothers and wives are often able assistants of male members. They spy out the land, hide the booty and screen the guilty. It is a rare thing for a woman to be put to death for implication in robbery; and it must be remembered that the mother of adventurous sons will also rear daughters of a similar character, who in turn become the mothers of a new generation of desperate adventurers; and thus a constant succession is assured in spite of official reprisals on the males. Here lies a social problem of immense importance, which might well tax the heart and brain of some great statesman. If brute force could cure the moral and social ills of this people it would by this time have had some effect; but torture and capital punishment have proved futile, and nothing short of a moral and spiritual regeneration will change the Han Liu adventurer into a law-abiding citizen.

This regeneration seems especially necessary for the female population, for the saying, "She who rocks the cradle rules the world" is true in Western China—she who carries the baby rules the land. So long as we have a race of women vicious enough to murder their own offspring in large numbers, to bind their daughters' feet, to abet the men in every crime, so long we shall have a race of brigands and buccaneers to terrify the country at every opportunity.

The hypnotic sects work secretly with the wiliness of serpents till they gain a secure hold; the naturalistic sects are full of bluster and pantomime, yet their propaganda is secret and swift. When either of these elements gains the upper hand the whole district is made to quake. Their methods of