This is the difference between the Chinese and the tribespeople of Yuen-nan.  Here we see the god of the missionary again, quite apart from any religious basis.  The tribesman comes and lays himself at the feet of the missionary, and says at once, “I do not know.  Tell me, and I will follow you.  I want to learn.”  That is why it is that the Chinese stand open-eyed and open-mouthed when they see the Miao making strides altogether impossible to themselves, in proportion to their standard of civilization, and this position of things will not be altered, unless they cease to deceive themselves.  I have seen a Miao boy of nine who never in his life had seen a Chinese character, who did not know that school existed and, whose only tutoring depended on the week’s visit of the missionary twice a year.  I have seen this youngster read off a sheet of Chinese characters no Chinese boy of his age in the whole city would succeed in.  I have not been brought into contact with any other tribe as I have with the Hua Miao.[1]

But if the progress this once-despised people are making is maintained, the Yuen-nanese will very soon be left behind in the matter of practical scholarship.  These Miao live the simplest of simple lives, but they wish to become better—­to live purer lives, to become civilized, to be uplifted; and therefore they are most humble, most approachable, and are slowly evolving into a happy position of proud independence.  Education among the Hua Miao is not lost:  among the Chinese much of the labor put forward in endeavors to educate them is lost, or seems to bear no immediate fruit.  The Miao are living by confidence and hope that turns towards the future; the Yuen-nanese are content with their confidence in the past.  The Miao, however, were not like this always—­but a few years ago they were not heard of outside China.

The coming emancipation of their women, demands some attention.  The few Europeans who have lived among the multitudes in Central China would not associate beds of roses with the lives of the women anywhere.

The daughter is seldom happy, and unless the wife present her husband with sons, who will perpetuate the father’s name and burn incense at his tablet after his death, her life is more often than not made absolutely unbearable—­a fact more than any other one thing responsible for the numerous suicides.  She is the drudge, the slave of the man.  And the popular belief is that all the women of the Middle Kingdom are essentially Chinese; but little is heard of the tribespeople—­more numerous probably than in any other given area in all the world—­whose womankind are as far removed from the Chinese in language, habits and customs as English ladies of to-day are removed from Grecians.  A decade or so ago no one heard of the Miao women:  they were the lowest of the low, having no status.  They were far worse off than their Chinese sisters, who, no matter what they had to endure after marriage, were certainly safeguarded by law and etiquette allowing them to enter the married state with respectability; but no social laws, no social ties protect the Miao women.