No tribe is more widely known than the Nou-su, with their innumerable
tribal distinctions and hereditary peculiarities so perplexing to the
inquirer into Far Western China ethnology.
The Nou-su are a very fine, tall race, with comparatively fair
complexions, suggesting a mixture of Mongolian with some other
straight-featured people. Of their origin, however, little can be
vouched for, and with it we will have nothing to do here. But at the
present time the Nou-su provide a good deal of interest from the fact
that their power as tyrannic landlords and feudal chiefs is fast dying,
and it may be that in a couple of decades, or a still shorter time, a
people who, by obstinate self-reliance and great dislike to the Chinese,
have remained unaffected by the absorbing spirit of the arbitrary
Chinese, will have passed beyond the vale of personality. Even now,
however, they own and rule enormous tracts of country (notably that part
lying on the right bank of the River of Golden Sand) in north-east
Yuen-nan. Some are very wealthy. One man may own vast tracts bigger than
Yorkshire. In this tract there may be one hundred villages, all paying
tribute to him and subject to the vagaries of his vilest despotism.
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