Volume 1

Travels in Tartary, Thibet and China, 1844-1846 / translated by William Hazlitt; now edited with an introduction by Professor Paul Pelliot.

Évariste Régis Huc

Date:: [1928]

Credit: Travels in Tartary, Thibet and China, 1844-1846 / translated by William Hazlitt; now edited with an introduction by Professor Paul Pelliot. Source: Wellcome Collection.

425/446 page 371

$themselves in any way injured or insulted, they have immediate recourse to the dagger, by way of remedy. With them the man moft: to be honoured is he who has committed the greatest number of murders. They have a language of their own, a medley of Mongol, Chinese, and Eastern Thibetian. According to their own account, they are of Tartar origin. If it be so, they may fairly claim to have preserved, in all its integrity, the ferocious and independent character of their ancestors, whereas the present occupiers of Mongolia have greatly modified and softened their manners. Though subject to the Emperor of China, the Dchiahours are immediately governed by a sort of hereditary sovereign belonging to their tribe, and who bears the title of Tou-Sse \fu-ssu\. There are in Kan-Sou, and on the frontiers of the province of Sse-Tchouan [Ssu-ch’uan] several other tribes, having their own special rulers and their own especial laws. All these tribes are called Tou-Sse, to which each adds, by way of diftindfion, the family name of its chief or sovereign. Samdadchiemba, for example, belonged to the Ki-Tou-Sse [Chi-t’u ssu] tribe of Dchiahours. Yang-Tou-Sse [Yang-t’u-ssu] is the mo ft celebrated and the moft: redoubtable of all these tribes, and for a long time exercised great influence at Lha-Ssa, the capital of Thibet, but this influence was deftroyed in 1845, in consequence of an event which we shall relate by-and-by. After thoroughly refting from our fatigue, we departed early next morning. Everywhere, on our way, we saw traces of the tempeft, in trees uprooted and torn, houses unroofed, fields devaftated and almoft; entirely deprived of their surface soil. Before the end of the day, we arrived at Tchoang-Long [Chuang-lang], more commonly called Ping-Fang [P’ing-fan], an ordinary town, with a tolerable amount of trade, but in 371 24a$