for a while that a clue had been found in the term ‘Chien-t’ou’ (sharp-head), applied to certain Lolo tribes.  But the idea had to be abandoned, since Marco Polo’s anecdote about the ‘caitiff,’ and the loose manners of his family, could never have referred to the Lolos, who are admitted even by their Chinese enemies to possess a very strict code indeed of domestic regulations.  The Lolos being eliminated, the Si-fans remained; and before we had been many days in their neighbourhood, stories were told us of their conduct which a polite pen refuses to record.  It is enough to say that Marco’s account falls rather short of the truth, and most obviously applies to the Si-fan.”

[Illustration:  Road descending from the Table-Land of Yun-nan into the Valley of the Kin-sha Kiang (the Brius of Polo).

(After Garnier.)]

Deveria (Front. p. 146 note) says that Kien-ch’ang is the ancient territory of Kiung-tu which, under the Han Dynasty, fell into the hands of the Tibetans, and was made by the Mongols the march of Kien-ch’ang (Che-Kong-t’u); it is the Caindu of Marco Polo; under the Han Dynasty it was the Kiun or division of Yueh-sui or Yueh-hsi.  Deveria quotes from the Yuen-shi-lei pien the following passage relating to the year 1284:  “The twelve tribes of the Barbarians to the south-west of Kien-tou and Kin-Chi submitted; Kien-tou was administered by Mien (Burma); Kien-tou submits because the Kingdom of Mien has been vanquished.”  Kien-tou is the Chien-t’ou of Baber, the Caindu of Marco Polo. (Melanges de Harlez, p. 97.) According to Mr. E.H.  Parker (China Review, xix. p. 69), Yueh-hsi or Yueh-sui “is the modern Kien-ch’ang Valley, the Caindu of Marco Polo, between the Yalung and Yang-tzu Rivers; the only non-Chinese races found there now are the Si-fan and Lolos.”—­H.C.]

Turning to minor particulars, the Lake of Caindu in which the pearls were found is doubtless one lying near Ning-yuan, whose beauty Richthofen heard greatly extolled, though nothing of the pearls. [Mr. Hosie writes (Three Years, 112-113):  “If the former tradition be true (the old city of Ning-yuan having given place to a large lake in the early years of the Ming Dynasty), the lake had no existence when Marco Polo passed through Caindu, and yet we find him mentioning a lake in the country in which pearls were found.  Curiously enough, although I had not then read the Venetian’s narrative, one of the many things told me regarding the lake was that pearls are found in it, and specimens were brought to me for inspection.”  The lake lies to the south-east of the present city.—­H.C.] A small lake is marked by D’Anville, close to Kien-ch’ang, under the name of Gechoui-tang.  The large quantities of gold derived from the Kin-sha Kiang, and the abundance of musk in that vicinity, are testified to by Martini.  The Lake mentioned by Polo as existing in the territory of Yachi is no