“With very rare exceptions the male Lolo, rich or poor, free or subject, may be instantly known by his horn.  All his hair is gathered into a knot over his forehead and there twisted up in a cotton cloth so as to resemble the horn of a unicorn.  The horn with its wrapper is sometimes a good nine inches long.  They consider this coiffure sacred, so at least I was told, and even those who wear a short pig-tail for convenience in entering Chinese territory still conserve the indigenous horn, concealed for the occasion under the folds of the Sze-ch’wan turban.” (Baber, p. 61.) See these horns on figures, Bk.  II. ch. lviii.

[Illustration:  White Lolo.]

“The principal clothing of a Lolo is his mantle, a capacious sleeveless garment of grey or black felt gathered round his neck by a string, and reaching nearly to his heels.  In the case of the better classes the mantle is of fine felt—­in great request among the Chinese—­and has a fringe of cotton-web round its lower border.  For journeys on horseback they have a similar cloak differing only in being slit half-way up the back; a wide lappet covering the opening lies easily along the loins and croup of the horse.  The colour of the felt is originally grey, but becomes brown-black or black, in process of time.  It is said that the insects which haunt humanity never infest these gabardines.  The Lolo generally gathers this garment closely round his shoulders and crosses his arms inside.  His legs, clothed in trousers of Chinese cotton, are swathed in felt bandages bound on with strings, and he has not yet been super-civilised into the use of foot-gear.  In summer a cotton cloak is often substituted for the felt mantle.  The hat, serving equally for an umbrella, is woven of bamboo, in a low conical shape, and is covered with felt.  Crouching in his felt mantle under this roof of felt the hardy Lolo is impervious to wind or rain.” (Baber, Travels, 61-62.)

“The word, ‘Black-bone,’ is generally used by the Chinese as a name for the independent Lolos, but in the mouth of a Lolo it seems to mean a ‘freeman’ or ‘noble,’ in which sense it is not a whit more absurd than the ‘blue-blood,’ of Europeans.  The ‘White-bones,’ an inferior class, but still Lolo by birth, are, so far as I could understand, the vassals and retainers of the patricians—­the people, in fact.  A third class consists of Wa-tzu, or slaves, who are all captive Chinese.  It does not appear whether the servile class is sub-divided, but, at any rate, the slaves born in Lolodom are treated with more consideration than those who have been captured in slave-hunts.” (Baber, Travels, 67.)