Sketches from Formosa.

60 SKETCHES FROM FORMOSA
village we entered, and begin by having a friendly chat
with the teacher. Neighbours would then gather about
and show great willingness in listening to our message.
We also distributed tracts, and supplied persons suffering
from malaria with small doses of quinine. The people
everywhere treated us with civility and respect.
On returning to Aw-gu-lan one evening while thus
engaged, A-tun a Sek-hwan bartering-man who understands
the language of the Bu-hwan introduced a
party of aborigines who wished to see me. He said they
belonged to the Bu-hwan tribe, and had brought a
message from their chief, A-rek. I soon ascertained
that they wished me to accompany them to their village
of Tur-u-wan, in a remote part of the mountains east
from Po-li-sia. The chief was ill, they said, and it was
thought I might be able to help him. As the opportunity
seemed a good one for getting to know something of
those people, I readily consented, and we arranged that
I should start with them from Gu-khun-soa on the
morning of i2th May.
The half-dozen men who made up the deputation were
darker in colour than the Po-li-sia people. They belong
to a beardless race, and do not shave as the Chinese and
Sek-hwan do, their coarse black hair being simply thrown
back, tied close to the head, and either twisted into a
knot, or left hanging behind in a loose unplaited mass.
Their facial tattoo marks take the form of short bars
placed horizontally in a column down the middle part of
the forehead and lower jaw. I noticed, too, that the
lobes of their ears had been pierced, and the perforations
enlarged till they could receive pieces of half-inch reed,
which were used as ornaments. One tall fellow had a
necklace composed of human teeth. All of them were
sans culottes, and the very scanty clothing they did wear
left by far the greater part of the body exposed. Their