former landlord,
and if he would save his head treads carefully.

In the early days, when different clans were driven farther into the
hills, they each clinched as much land as they could. In course of time,
by petty quarrels, civil wars, and common feuds, the Nou-su were
gradually thinned out. The Miao-tsi--the men of the hills and the serfs
of the landlords, who four thousand years ago were a powerful race in
their own kingdom--became the tenants of the Nou-su, whose rule is still
marked by the grossest infamy possible to be practiced on the human
race. All the methods of torture which in the old days were associated
with the Chinese are still in vogue, in many cases in an aggravated
form. I have personally seen the tortures, and have listened to the
stories of the victims, but it would not bear description in print.

It must not, however, be understood that to be a Nou-su is to be a
landlord. By no means. For in the gradual process of the survival of the
fittest, when the weaker landlords were murdered by their stronger
compatriots and their lands seized, only a small percentage of the tribe
in this area have been able to hold sway. However, wherever there are
landlords in this part of the country, they are always Nou-su or
Chinese. The Miao--or, at least, the Hua Miao, own no lands, and are
body and soul in the tyrannic clutch of the tyrannic I-pien. Then,
again, in the Nou-su tribe there are various hereditary distinctions
enabling a man to claim caste advantage. There are the Black Bones, as
they style themselves, the aristocrats of the race, and the White Bones,
the lower breeds, who obey to the letter their wealthier brethren--or
anybody who has authority over them.

The Nou-su, who are a totally different race and a much better class
than the Miao, are believed to have been driven from the Chao-t'ong
Plain, preferring migration to fighting, and many trekked across the
Yangtze (locally called the Kin-sha) river into country now marked on
good maps as the Man-tze country. It appears that the following are the
two important branches:--

(i) The Black (Na-su)--Farmers and landowners.

(ii) The White (Tu-su) Generally slaves.

Other minor classes are:--

(i) The Lakes (or Red Nou-su)--Mostly blacksmiths.

(ii) The A-u-tsi Mostly felt-makers, who rightly or wrongly claim
relationship with the Chinese.

(iii) Another class, who are mostly basket-makers.

The two great divisio