Page:Siam and Laos, as seen by our American missionaries (1884).pdf/547

 ince of Muang-Luang-Prabang, but are found in all the Laos and in some of the Burmese provinces, in the Hau country of China,[A] and among the independent tribes. They are said to be harmless and honest. They are ignorant and despised, even by the poor, wretched people of this country. Their clothing is even more scanty than that of the almost naked Laos.

Their homes are upon the tops of the mountains, not in the valleys among the mountains, as are the Karen villages. They cultivate small portions of ground, which they are not permitted to call their own. Their diminutive clearings and solitary houses, on or near the top of steep, high mountains, have a singular appearance, surrounded as they are with forest and standing in bold relief against the sky. Many of them, from frequent intercourse with their masters, understand the spoken Laos language, but they have a distinct language of their own. They have no written language. Probably not one in ten thousand of them can read the books of any language. They have a few small villages, but the majority of the people live in isolated homes. They have no city of their own. Missionary efforts to reach that tribe might be made through a native ministry. The superintendence of such a work, should it be attempted, would require a missionary to reside in Muang-Luang-Prabang.

[Footnote A: This is Yunnan.]