CHAPTER XXXV. TENG-YUEH; A LINK WITH CIVILIZATION

After a week on the pass above Ho-mu-shu we shifted camp to a village called Tai-ping-pu, ten miles nearer Teng-yueh on the same road. The ride along the summit of the mountain was a delight, for we passed through grove after grove of rhododendrons in full blossom. The trees were sometimes thirty feet in height and the red flowers glowed like clusters of living coals among their dark green leaves. In the northern part of Yuen-nan the rhododendrons grow above other timber line on mountains where it is too high even for spruces.

It rained continually during our stay at Tai-ping-pu. I had another attack of the Salween malaria and for five or six days could do little work. Heller, however, made good use of his time and killed a beautiful horned pheasant, Temmick's tragopan (Ceriornis temmincki), besides half a dozen langurs of the same species as those we had collected on the Nam-ting River. He also was fortunate in shooting one of the huge flying squirrels (Petaurista yunnanensis) which we had hoped to get at Wei-hsi. He saw the animal in the upper branches of a dead tree on the first evening we were in Tai-ping-pu but was not able to get a shot. The next night he watched the same spot and killed the squirrel with a charge of "fours." It measured forty-two and one-quarter inches from the nose to the end of the tail and was a rich mahogany red grizzled with whitish above; the underparts were cream white. As in all flying squirrels, the four legs were connected by a sheet of skin called the "patagium" which is continuous with the body. This acts as a parachute and enables the animal to sail from tree to tree for, of course, it cannot fly like a bat. As these huge squirrels are strictly nocturnal, they are not often seen even by the natives. We were told by the Lutzus on the Mekong River that by building huge fires in the woods they could attract the animals and shoot them with their crossbows.

A few weeks later we purchased a live flying squirrel from a native and kept it for several days in the hope that it might become tame. The animal was exceedingly savage and would grind its teeth angrily and spring at anyone who approached its basket. It could not be tempted to eat or drink and, as it was a valuable specimen, we eventually chloroformed it.

Just below our camp in a pretty little valley a half dozen families of Lisos were living, and we hired the men to hunt for us. They were good-natured fellows, as all the natives of this tribe seem to be, and worked well. One day they brought in a fine muntjac buck which had been killed with their crossbows and poisoned darts. The arrows were about twelve inches long, made of bamboo and "feathered" with a triangular piece of the same wood. Those for shooting birds and squirrels were sharpened to a needle point, but the hunting darts were tipped with steel or iron. The poison they extracted from a plant, which I never saw, and it was said that it takes effect very rapidly.

The muntjac which the Lisos killed had been shot in the side with a single arrow and they assured us that only the flesh immediately surrounding the wound had been spoiled for food. These natives like the Mosos, Lolos, and others carried their darts in a quiver made from the leg skin of a black bear, and none of the men wished to sell their weapons; I finally did obtain a crossbow and quiver for six dollars (Mexican).

Two days before we left Tai-ping-pu, three of the Lisos guided my wife and me to a large cave where they said there was a colony of bats. The cavern was an hour's ride from camp, and proved to be in a difficult and dangerous place in the side of a cliff just above a swift mountain stream. We strung our gill net across the entrance and then sent one of the natives inside to stir up the animals while we caught them as they flew out. In less than half an hour we had twenty-eight big brown bats, but our fingers were cut and bleeding from the vicious bites of their needle-like teeth. They all represented a widely distributed species which we had already obtained at Yuen-nan Fu.

From Lung-ling I had sent a runner to Mr. Evans at Ta-li Fu asking him to forward to Teng-yueh the specimens which we had left in his care, and the day following our visit to the bat cave the caravan bearing our cases passed us at Tai-ping-pu. We, ourselves, were about ready to leave and two days later at ten o'clock in the morning we stood on a precipitous mountain summit, gazing down at the beautiful Teng-yueh plain which lay before us like a relief map. It is as flat as a plain well can be and, except where a dozen or more villages cluster on bits of dry land, the valley is one vast watery rice field. Far in the distance, outside the gray city walls, we could see two temple-like buildings surrounded by white-walled compounds, and Wu told us they were the houses of the Customs officials.

Teng-yueh, although only given the rank of a "ting" or second-class Chinese city, is one of the most important places in the province, for it stands as the door to India. All the trade of Burma and Yuen-nan flows back and forth through the gates of Teng-yueh, over the great caravan road to Bhamo on the upper Irawadi.

An important post of the Chinese Foreign Customs, which are administered by the British government as security for the Boxer indemnity, is situated in this city, and we were looking forward with the greatest interest to meeting its white population. At the time of our visit the foreigners included Messrs. H.G. Fletcher and Ralph C. Grierson, respectively Acting Commissioner and Assistant Commissioner of Customs; Messrs. W.R. Palmer and Abertsen, also of the Customs; Mr. Eastes, H.B.M. Consul; Dr. Chang, Indian Medical Officer, and Reverend and Mrs. Embry of the China Inland Mission; Mr. Eastes, accompanied by the resident mandarin, was absent on a three months' opium inspection tour so that we did not meet him.

We reached Teng-yueh on Sunday morning and camped in a temple outside the city walls. Immediately after tiffin we called upon Mr. Grierson and went with him to the Customs House where Messrs. Abertsen and Palmer were living. We found there a Scotch botanist, Mr. Forrest, an old traveler in Yuen-nan who was en route to A-tun-zu on a three-year plant-hunting expedition for an English commercial firm. We had heard much of Forrest from Messrs. Kok and Hanna and were especially glad to meet him because of his wide knowledge of the northwestern part of the province. Mr. Forrest was interested chiefly in primroses and rhododendrons, I believe, and in former years obtained a rather remarkable collection of these plants.

From Mr. Grierson we first learned that the United States had declared war on Germany. It had been announced only a week before, and the information had reached Teng-yueh by cable and telegraph almost immediately. It came as welcome news to us Americans who had been vainly endeavoring to justify to ourselves and others our country's lethargy in the face of Teuton insolence, and made us feel that once again we could acknowledge our nationality with the pride we used to feel.

On Monday Mr. Grierson invited us to become his guests and to move our caravan and belongings to his beautiful home. We were charmed with it and our host. The house was built with upturned, temple-like gables, and from his cool verandah we could look across an exquisite flower-filled garden to the blue mountains from which we had had our first view of Teng-yueh the day before. The interior of the dwelling was as attractive as its surroundings, and the beautifully served meals were as varied and dainty as one could have had in the midst of a great city.

Like all Britishers, the Customs men had carried their sport with them. Just beyond the city walls an excellent golf course had been laid out with Chinese graves as bunkers, and there was a cement tennis court behind the Commissioner's house. Mr. Grierson had two excellent polo ponies, besides three trained pointer dogs, and riding and shooting over the beautiful hills gave him an almost ideal life. We found that Mr. Fletcher had a really remarkable selection of records and an excellent Victrola. After dinner, as we listened to the music, we had only to close our eyes and float back to New York and the Metropolitan Opera House on the divine harmony of the sextet from "Lucia" or Caruso's matchless voice. But none of us wished to be there in body for more than a fleeting visit at least, and the music already brought with it a lingering sadness because our days in the free, wild mountains of China were drawing to a close.

During the week we spent with Mr. Grierson we dried and packed all our specimens in tin-lined boxes which were purchased from the agent of the British American Tobacco Company in Teng-yueh. They were just the right size to carry on muleback and, after the birds and mammals had been wrapped in cotton and sprinkled with napthalene, the cases were soldered and made air tight. The most essential thing in sending specimens of any kind through a moist, tropical climate such as India is to have them perfectly dry before the boxes are sealed; otherwise they will arrive at their destination covered with mildew and absolutely ruined.

On the day of our arrival in Teng-yueh we purchased from a native two bear cubs (Ursus tibetanus) about a week old. Each was coal black except for a V-shaped white mark on the breast and a brown nose. When they first came to us they were too young to eat and we fed them diluted condensed milk from a spoon.

The little chaps were as playful as kittens and the story of their amusing ways as they grew older is a book in itself. After a month one of the cubs died, leaving great sorrow in the camp; the other not only lived and flourished but traveled more than 16,000 miles.

He went with us on a pack mule to Bhamo, down the Irawadi River to Rangoon, and across the Bay of Bengal to Calcutta. He then visited many cities in India, and at Bombay boarded the P. &O.S.S. Namur for Hongkong and became the pet of the ship. From China we took him to Japan, across the Pacific to Vancouver, and finally to our home at Lawrence Park, Bronxville, New York. After an adventurous career as a house pet, when his exploits had made him famous and ourselves disliked by all the neighbors, we regretfully sent him to the National Zooelogical Park, Washington, D.C., where he is living happily at the present time. He was the most delightful little pet we have ever owned and, although now he is nearly a full grown bear, his early life is perpetuated in motion pictures and we can see him still as he came to us the first week. He might well have been the model for the original "Teddy Bear" for he was a round ball of fur, mostly head and ears and sparkling little eyes.