MIAU-TSZE or Miao-tzu and Mau-tzu, are aboriginal tribes in the various highlands in the S. and W. Provinces of China proper. They are regarded by the Chinese as barbarians, and are designated by derogatory and contemptuous appellations. Recent travellers, and particularly Mr. Colquhoun, in his Travels across Chryse, have given notices of them : the more important are as follows :— Yuh-lun follow agriculture, and weave cloths. They are skilled archers, and excel in the use of spears and javelins.
Yang-tung-lo•han are farmers, traders ; their women rear silk-worms.
Kih-mang-ku•yang live in excavations in high cliffs, some reached by ladders. Their district is in Kwang-shnn-chau.
Tung-mien cultivate cotton, and enter China as labourers. They dwell in Tien-chit, near Kin-ping. Shwui-kia-miau, i.e. the water-family Mian of the Li-po district. The men are fishers and hunters, and the women spin and weave.
King-kia of Li•po-hien have a festival on the last day of the 10th month, and sacrifice to demons. In the 11th month, the unmarried folk dance and sing in the fields, and choose life partners for, themselves. This is called marrying at sight. Both men and women wear handkerchiefs on their heads.
dwell in the Ping-yuen-chau. They are farmersrbut not skilful ; they weave clothes for themselves.
Luh-ngeh-tsze of the Wei-ning district in Ta-ting-fu, ,--are both black and white ; the women wear They bury their dead in coffins ; and, after a year, they sacrifice, and reopen the graves, brush and wash the bones clean, wrap them in cloths, and reinter \ them, and thus clean them annually for seven successive •years. The men wear a slender head-dress.
or the White .Foreheads, dress in white; men with short, and women in long petticoats. Yen-kia-man dwell in Sz-nan-fu, and are fishermen. Tung-kia-miau inhabit Li-po-hien They wear blue dyed cloths which reach to the knees. They grow cotton and weave ; they are i literate, and put .
notches on sticks as memoranda. On New Year's day they make offerings of fish, flesh, rice, and spirits.
Kiu-ming and Ku-sing, cultivators in Fuh-shan-chau, are violent, quarrelsome, treacherous, and given to drink, readily seizing weapons in their drunken bouts.
Mau-tau-miau, farmers in the Hia-yu and Ku•chau districts. The women dress and ornament their hair with fan-shaped garlands of silver thread, fastening it with a long skewer ; they wear two ear-rings in each ear, and a necklace. The cuffs and edgings are worked with figured silk. Paternal aunts daughters must marry their cousins.
Tsing-kiang-heb, or black tribe of Tsing-kiang, wear silver ornaments, and the young folk select their own partners.
Lu-ku-heh, or Black Miau of Pa-chai and Tsing-kiang, are pastoral, but dwell in houses, their cattle below. They are diligent farmers. Their dead are kept in coffins for a period, and all the accumulated dead are then interred.
Pa-kchai-heh, or the black tribes of the eight can tonments of the Ta-yun-fu district, arc violent, They fringe their sleeves with flowered cloth. They erect a Malang' or hall, at which the un married assemble and pair off.
Heh sham or tribes of the black hills of Tai-kung in Tsing-kiang, live in the recesses of the mountains, and are predatory.
Heh-sang-miau, black subdued tribes of Tsing•kiang, are highly predatory.
Kau-po-miau, or Crown Board Miau, are usually black. They cultivate on the higher plateaux.
Yu-fah-miau of Sien-tien in Kwei-ting, at marriages and solemn periods sacrifice dogs. The men wear short petticoats, the women short bodices and long petticoats, and fasten their hair with a long bodkin.
Tsing-chung-miau live in Tai-kung-ting. The men are notoriously predatory, and ransom their captives ; their women plough and weave.
Li-min-tsze of Ta-ting-fu, Kien-si-chau, Kwei-yang-fu, Ngan-shun-fu;etc., are traders, and rear cattle and sheep, spin and weave. They are the most civil ised of all the Mian tribes.
Peh'rh-tsze, or the Whites, live in Wei-ning-chan, rear cattle and horses.
Peh-lung-kia, or White Dragon families, live in the • district of Ping-yuen in Ta-ting-fu. They dress in white, and collect lac and forest produce. They are a moral race.
Peh-chung-kia live in Li-po-ting, and are agricultural. The men wear a fox-tail on their heads. The women are small but fair and well made, and wear blue-dyed clothes.
Tn kih-lau live in Ka-ning-chau, and plait grass into clothing. They are labourers to the Ku-lo people.
Che-chai-miau, or 600 wild Miau families in Ku-chau ting, are descendants of 600 soldiers of the army of Ma-san-Pau, who took refuge there in the time of Tai-tsung of the Tang dynasty. The men are variously occupied. The unmarried arrange their own weddings.
Si-ki-miau live in the Tien-chu district. The women have green cloth wound round their thighs, with petticoats reaching to the ,knees. The young people select their own partners, and after the birth of a child a marriage present of a cow is given.
Hu-lu of Lo-kuk, in the Ting-pwan-chau district, are violent and predatory, despising agriculture.
Hung-ohau-miau of Li-ping-fu are agricultural, and the women spin and weave cotton cloths and grass-cloth. The Hung grass-cloth is famed.
Heh-lau-miau of Tsin-kiang-ting dwell on the plateau. They have a town hall where public matters are discussed.
Heh-lcioh, or Black-leg Miau of Tsin-kiang-ting, are predatory, carrying spears and knives. Before an expedition, they draw omens from the fighting of two crabs. A peaceful man could not get a wife.
Twan-kwau-mian, dwelling in Ta-yan-fu. The men have short dresses and broad trousers. The women wear petticoats, and have their body exposed from