Note 300 — Chapter XV

Comptes Rendus, Société de Géographie, 1898. No. 8, p. 349. But see M. Paul Vial (Les Lolos: Shanghai, 1898). If M. Vial's theory of the origin of the word Lolo is correct, it was originally by no means a disrespectful term. He considers that it is a Chinese reduplication of a form of the word No or Na, which was the special name of one of the patrician tribes of the Lolos. He admits, however, that the term is now regarded as impolite. He says that the Lolos have now no common name for the whole race, but simply employ the various tribal names as occasion requires. The Chinese characters for Lolo (generally 玀玀) are merely phonetic. The constant use of the "dog" radical in the Chinese characters employed to represent the names of barbarous tribes is an instructive indication of the contemptuous Chinese attitude towards such people. In the word Man the radical is an insect or reptile.