Page:Ling-Nam; or, Interior views of southern China, including explorations in the hitherto untraversed island of Hainan (IA cu31924023225307).pdf/189

 Lien-Chow and the Lu People. 185

being on the borders of the In country, and being the site of an important military station. The town is in two parts—the mart, where the market is beld, and in which a large trade centres; and the walled city, where the garrison is stationed and the officers reside. The town is filled with busy throngs on market days, among whieh, on ordinary oecasions,may be seen several hundreds of the Iu people, both men and women. They come from their homes in the high mountains, bringing freshly- picked tea-leaves of a large, eoarse kind, poultry, maize, and herbs for sale, and taking back dried beef, tobacco, and cloth. They are lower in stature than the Chinese, do not sbave the head, and wear the hair coiled up behind, both men and women having long hair. Their complexion is much like the Chinese, but some are almost copper-coloured. They have scanty beards, and not much dignity of presence. The women are very short, and many of them stout. Their dress is very similar to that of the men, being a jacket with elose-fitting sleeves folded across the chest, leaving the neck open, and trousers that reach only to the knee; from the knee to the ankle a strip of ornamented cloth, about half an inch wide, is wound in such a way that the figures correspond. They wear no shoes, and the men have no hats, but some of the women wear a strange-looking head-dress, a kind of high paper cap encircling the coil of hair. The men seem to dress their hair more elaborately than the women, some that I saw having it carefully combed back, coiled in symmetrical folds behind, and decorated with orna- ments made of the pith of the wood-oil tree, and cock’s feathers. Both men and women have immense silver