THE LANGUAGE-TEST OF RACE
The collection of hastily-compiled and doubtless very inaccurate vocabularies to be found in Appendix A need not be taken as indicating any belief in the value of such lists of words from either the philological or the ethnological point of view. They are given merely for what they are worth, as an infinitesimal addition to the small stock of general knowledge that we already possess with regard to the tribes of western China. The old faith in language as a sure test of race has long been given up. A page or two of skull measurements would help us more towards settling the racial problems of western China than the completest equipment of grammars and dictionaries. Unfortunately the methods employed by many of the tribes for the disposal of their dead will seriously hamper the investigations of the craniologist who, in the hopes of a rich harvest of inexorable bones, may take his measuring-tape to the graveyards of western China.
NOTE 36 ([p. 226])
HIGHEST HABITATION ON THE GLOBE
The land of Muli is as wild and mountainous as that of Chala. It was between Muli and the Yalung that M. Bonin discovered what he believes to be the highest inhabited station on the globe, at a height of 16,568 feet, "a hamlet occupied in the dead of winter by a few yak-herdsmen." The mines of Tok-ya-long in western Tibet, he says, which have hitherto been considered the highest habitation in the world are 525 feet lower, and moreover are not inhabited all the year round. There are other spots both in Muli and Chala, probably of a greater height than 16,000 feet, that are inhabited, though the huts are probably not occupied in winter.
NOTE 37 ([p. 233])
FEMALE CHIEFS
In the Shan States female rulers are apparently not uncommon. (See Gazetteer of Upper Burma, pt. i. vol. i. p. 262.) For an interesting note on several Tibetan "queens" (derived from native and Chinese sources) see Rockhill's Land of the Lamas, pp. 339-341. Sa-mong is better known as So-mo. A recent European visitor to this country says that the "queen" or nü-wang of So-mo is only a myth, "the real monarch being actually a man, who for some obscure reason calls himself a Queen." (W. C. Haines Watson, A Journey to Sung-p'an, in J.R.A.S. (China), vol. xxxvi., 1905.) The Ssuch'uan T'ung Chih contains references to several female t'u ssŭ. A female t'u pai hu, with a territorial name of six syllables, is mentioned as becoming tributary to China in K'ang Hsi 60. She paid 20 taels annually as "horse-money." The Ch'ang Kuan Ssŭ of Sung Kang is—or may be—a woman. One is mentioned as receiving honours from China in K'ang Hsi 23. Another female ch'ang kuan ssŭ in the Chien-ch'ang Valley (Hu-li-ho-tung) is described as being a tribute-payer to the extent of ten horses a year.
NOTE 38 ([p. 246])
LI-CHIANG-FU