Page:Chinese Life in the Tibetan Foothills.djvu/82

 four sides of the house, and give warning if help is arriving. The cry of chang shui  'the flood is rising,' is a sign that the neighbours have risen to protect the family. After the robbery is completed, there is what is known as tien chiang pai hua  count the men and display the booty. Any dead are carried away with them if possible, and disposed of in the most convenient way, for fear of leaving any trace of the origin of the band. The head of the gang gets 40 per cent, and the remaining 60 per cent, goes to the men who have done the work. The division is made after all expenses of the raid have been deducted.

Robbery by piercing a wall requires an instrument known as the ao tao  or ch‘iao tao , a crowbar. After a hole has been pierced through the wall, a bamboo with a handful of straw tied on the end of it is pushed inside to see if the way is clear; all being well the thief crawls in feet first, for fear of getting a bang on the head, and so as to be able to to crawl quickly out again in case of alarm.

When a character of this sort reaches a strange place he will draw a picture on a blank wall, such as a head with a moustache on one side of the mouth only. Other particular classes of thieves draw the picture of a single hand or foot. The picture of a head without any hands means that the thief is in need of an assistant. When the local thieves see these they draw another figure of the same kind close to it giving secret directions as to where he will find a lodging and companions. The day-light thief is called a  pa êrh, the night worker   hei nao-k‘o, black head. Pickpockets are known as p‘a ko êrh, lao chua   or shua êrh  , hung p‘an p‘an  , hung lao piao   red-haired cousin, etc. The burglar who opens partitions   ko pi, carries a pair of strong scissors, and thus bamboo and lime partitions are easily taken out. Once inside the house he soon tears open the doors and prepares a way of escape. Even the dogs seem to have a wholesome fear of this class and dare not bark till after they have gone. A troublesome dog is poisoned by giving it human hair chopped very fine and rolled inside meat or fish. This seems to be fatal, as the animal can neither digest the dose nor vomit it.