The race, too, is dying out--in this area at all
events--and the Nou-su themselves reckon that their numbers have
decreased by one-half during the last thirty years. This is one of the
saddest facts. The insanitation of their dwellings, their rough diet,
and frequent riotings in wine, opium and other evils, are quickly
playing havoc in their ranks, giving the strong the opportunity of
enriching themselves at the expense of the weak, with frequent fighting
about the division of land.
Europeans who can speak the language of the Nou-su are numbered on the
fingers of one hand.
To one who has traveled in this neighborhood for any length of time, it
must be apparent that the unique method generally adopted by the Nou-su,
that is, the landlord class, to get rich quickly is to kill off their
next-door neighbor. The lives these men live with nothing but scandal
and licentiousness to pass their time, are grossly and horribly wicked
when viewed by the broadest-minded Westerner. They all live in fear of
their lives, and are each afraid of the others, all entertaining a
secret hatred, and all ever on the alert to devise some safe scheme to
murder the owner of some land they are anxious of annexing to their
own--and in the doing of the deed to save their own necks.
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